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A PIER USED AS A MuRGUE DEAD BODIES IN COFFINS WITH 

ICE PACKED AROUND THEM, AWAITING REMOVAL BY THEIR 
RELATIVES AND FRIENDS. 



AAEyyVORIAL BDITIOIN 

new york's awful 
Steamboat Horror 

HUNDREDS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN 
DROWNED AND BURNED TO DEATH 

WITH GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF FLAMES SWEEPING MANY 

SOULS TO ETERNITY WITH RESISTLESS FURY ; 

PANIC STRICKEN MULTITUDES JUMPING 

TO SURE DEATH, ETC., ETC. 

AND CONTAINING THRILLING STORIES OF THIS MOST OVER- 
WHELMING CATASTROPHE OF MODERN TIMES 

TO WHICH IS ADDED VIVID ACCOUNTS OF HEARTRENDING 

SCENES WHERE HUNDREDS WERE BURNED AND 

DROWNED IN THEIR EFFORTS TO ESCAPE 

COMPILED FROM THE DESCRIPTIONS OF EYE WITNESSES AND 
SURVIVORS OF THIS TERRIBLE DISASTER 

By H. D. NORTHROP, the well-known author 



Profusely Illustrated with a Great Many Photographs of 
Thrilling Scenes in this Fearful Catastrophe 



TO THE ABOVE IS ADDED AN ACCOUNT OF ALL GREAT IMI^F 
HORRORS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS 



NATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

239 SO. AMERICAN STREET 
PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



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LIB»««?V «f 50N6RESS 
Two Onnies 3ec«ived 

SEP 26 1904 

afeMEntry 
(^ XXo. Na 
COPY B 



fNTtBfn ACCOnOING TO ACT OF tOHr.HE<;K IN THE V Aff 10O<, UV 
D. Z. HOWELL 
n ^-l OFriCE of the librarian of concsress, at Washington, d. c. u. s. 



PREFACE. 



THE appalling steamboat horror in New York Harbor 
is even more terrifying than the Chicago Theatre 
Fire, for this catastrophe resnlted in the death of lum- 
dreds by both fire and water. It has sent a thrill of 
dismay and terror thronghont the whole world. A crowd 
of excursionists were made victims of this dire calamity 
All on board were anticipating a day of pleasure, and 
never dreamed that a disaster so shocking was near. In 
an instant the merry company was turned into a frantic 
struggling crowd, all making desperate efforts to save 
themselves and their friends. No language can describe 
the heartrending scenes, or convey any adequate idea ot 
the awful holocaust on the " General Slocuni." 

Crowds of children were on board, and their mothers 
were driven by the fury of flames to leap with them into 
the water. Family parties prepared for a day's picnic, 
were on the doomed boat, and were hurled to death, as it 
were, in the twinkling of an eye. In the wild con- 
fusion, mothers were separated from their little ones, 
never to look again into their loving faces. 

The accident occurred in the East River, opposite the 
upper part of New York City. The banks are steep and 
rocky at this point, which has been given the suggestive 
name of " Hell Gate." It has long been considered a dan- 
gerous place, and many small vessels have gone down 
in the swirl of these waters. 

When the fire was discovered the awe-stricken 
officers and passengers stood paralyzed and helpless to 
stay the ravages of the devouring flames. The seething 



4 PREFACE. 

furnace gathered new materials for its remorseless de- 
vastation, and mocked all efforts to staj' its onward 
proj^ress. Clouds of smoke enveloped the sky, throuj^h 
which the ascending jets of fire shot with the fierceness 
of lightning. 

There was a noise like an explosion down in the 
steamer's hull, and red starry loads of sparks and smoke 
and flames flew up, and the greater part of the super- 
structure plunged forward into llie flames. How many 
hundreds of lives were snuffed out at that instant nobody 
will ever know. 

From the shores could be seen writhing figures in 
the- l)urning wreck, slipping down further and further 
iuto the flames until they disappeared. As bees cling to 
a branch when swarming, there was a thick clustering of 
women all screaming ; and boys and girls around the 
edges of as much of the railing of the boat as was left 
standing. 

Mothers threw their children overboard and leaped 
after them. The majority of them went down to 
a water}- grave. All kinds of boats that were near 
hurried to the rescue, and many a sailor proved himself 
to be a hero by risking his life to save the drowning and 
those who were frantic and in agony from the all- 
enveloping flames. 

A full and inteu.sely graphic account of this ap- 
palling disaster is contained in this memorial volume. 
The book has a fascination that cannot be resisted. This 
calamity stands out in bold and terrible outlines in the 
history of great disasters. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. PAGE 

FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE BY FIRE AND WATER- • • • 1 7 

CHAPTER II. 

OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY 28 

CHAPTER III. 

SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF 41 

CHAPTER IV. 

SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS 60 

CHAPTER V. 

STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES 84 

CHAPTER VL 

FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS Ill 

CHAPTER VIL 

THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION 139 

CHAPTER VIII. 

HBROES SAVE MANY LIVES 157 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

STARTLING FACTS AT Till", INQUEST 1 76 

ciiaptp:r X. 

NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUKLIC 199 

CHAPTER XL 

THE vSTHAMHOAT A DEATH TRAP 220 

CHAPTER Xn. 

WoRTHI.l-.SS IJI'H-l'RESERVERS 231 

chaptp:r xni. 

VAI.OROrS DEEDS BY RESCUERS 243 

CHAPTIiR XIV. 

SWIFT JISTICE DEMANDED 258 

CHAPTER XV. 

ORPHANS CAST TPON THE WORLD 277 

CHAPTER XVI. 

SLAIOHTI'.R CAUSED BY GREI-.D 296 

CHAPTER XVII. 

STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARREvSTED 307 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

DIKT.ES For 'IHl- hlv\D 324 





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THIS GROUP SHOWS THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF TWENTY-EIGHT WOMEN AND 
CHILDREN WHO WERE ON THE ILL-FATED STEAMER "GENERAL SLOGUM." 




ANTONIO SCHWARTZ 
SAVED 22 LIVES 
3. LUCY BORST 

SAVhD 
5. ROSIE ASCHE 
MISSING 

EXCURSIONISTS WHO WERE ON THE ILL-FATED STEAMER GEN. SLOCUM 



2. CHARLES CORDES 

SAVED 

4. TILLIE HANFT 
MISSING 
6. CHARLES KUNSTNER 

SAVED 




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CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER XIX. 

LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM DISASTER • 337 



BOOK II. 

THE GREAT CHICAGO HORROR. 



CHAPTER XX. 

STORY OF THE GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES • 359 

CHAPTER XXL 

AWFUL SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED .... 372 

CHAPTER XXII. 

DESPERATE STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH 390 

CHAPTER XXIIL 

LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR 4^7 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

OTHER APPALLING TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE • • • • 4^9 




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CAPTAIN WILLIAM H. VAN SCHAICK, WHO COMMANDED THE 
iLL-FATtD STEAMBOAT "'GEN. SLOCUM." 




WRECK OF STEAMER AFTER THE TERRIBLE DISASTER, WHICH 
RESULTED IN THE LOSS OF SO MANY LIVES. 




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DEAD BODIES ON A RESCUE TUGBOAT SHOWING HOW THEY 
APPEARED AFTER BEING TAKEN FROM THE WATER, 




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ROTTEN LIFE PRESERVER TAKEN FROM THE WRECK OF THE 

IL'--FATED STEAMER "GEN ERAL SLOCUM." SHOWING STAMP 

OF DATE OF INSPECTION. 




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APPALLING HORROR 



IN 



NEW YORK BAY. 



CHAPTER I. 
FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE BY FIRE AND WATER. 

NOTHING approaching the great calamity of June 
I5tli ever before happened in New York waters. In 
the midst of such an awful destruction of life, the exact 
number of those who perished is immaterial, but it is 
certain that on day of the calamity more than looo souls 
were sent to their long homes without a moment's warn- 
ing to prepare for death. The list of the missing has 
reached an appalling length. 

"How did such a thing happen?" That was the 
question that was reiterated up and down the length 
and breadth of the city. People read that the captain 
found his boat with its living cargo was on fire at i loth 
street, and yet did not drive it to the shore until he 
reached 138th street, a mile and a half from the 
place were the cry of "Fire!" first reached his ears. 

Capt. William H. Van Schaick of the "Slocum" ex- 
plained as best he could how such a horrible disaster had 
come to a steamer under his care and direction. He is 
a man 61 years old, and has had long experience in com- 
manding pleasure craft in the waters around New York. 
Capt. Van Schaick said that, though he heard the alarm 
of fire early, he made up his mind at once that there was 

N.Y. 2 17 



18 FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE BY FIRK AND WATER. 

no certain place nliere slie could be beached in shallow 
water south of North Brother Island. The tide was run- 
ning east to the Sound with terrible velocity, and the 
captain feared that he would lose time tr^ang to turn his 
boat into a proper beaching place to beach her west of 
North Brother Island. He stuck to his post, although 
the flames scorched his clothing, until the boat was hard 
and fast ashore. Pilot Van Wart stayed with him. 

Rivermen generall}^ are divided as to the good 
judgment shown by Capt. Van Schaick in tr^-iug to go 
so far. It was nearl}' an even division. Tlie captain 
himself admitted that it was not until after the fire had 
been burning some time that he realized its fierceness 
and its rapidity. Capt. Van Schaick and Pilots Van Wart 
and Weaver were arrested and were sent to the prison 
cells of Bellevue Hospital. All of them were badly 
burned. 

GRAVE QUESTIONS TO BE SETTLED. 

District Attorney Jerome sent his assistant, F. P. 
Garvan, to the scene of the wreck to determine whether 
a crime had been committed. It was stated that if it 
could be shown that Capt. Van Schaick used his best judg- 
ment he would not be held responsible. But there were 
other questions which would call for a criminal investi- 
gation, as, for instance, the quality and condition of the 
life preservers on the " General Slocum " and the facili- 
ties which she had for fighting fire. 

It was proven that a man could rip man}'' of the 
life preservers on the ship wide open with his thumb- 
nail and that some of them were filled with granu- 
lated cork, which quickly becomes water soaked 
and loses buoyanc}'. Former Fire Marshal Freel was 



FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE BY FIRE AND WATER. 19 

retained by tlie District Attorney to make an investiga- 
tion into tlie circumstances of the starting of tlie fire. 

There was a compartment in the hold of the 
" General Slocum " known as the second cabin. It was 
forward, just aft the forecastle. In this room were kept 
the lamps and the oil for filling them ; the gasolene and 
the brass polishing liquids and all the other inflam- 
mable supplies. It is thought that the fire started 
in this cabin. But it was known that the flames were 
fed there to reach their greatest and most murderous 
intensity. From that cabin the fire swept back through 
the boat with a fierceness that no fire fighting apparatus 
could hold in check. 

STEAMER SPOUTING FLAMES. 

There were scenes of horror on the " General Slo- 
cum"andon shore such as it would be impossible to 
put on paper, even though any chronicler had the 
ability. It was a boat load of women and little children. 
For the last mile, when the steamer, spouting flames 
high into the air, was shooting swiftly out to the Sound 
with the tide, people on shore and on other steamers 
could see the women and children fluttering over the 
sides into the water in scores. The river is swift there 
at flood tide. The waves dash forward one over another 
with white foam. A strong man would have but little 
chance in those waters. The women and children had 
no chance for their lives. 

There were heard many such stories as often come 
out after a disaster — stories of cruel selfishness by mem- 
bers of the crew, of cold disregard of the distress 
signals and most evident need by pleasure and business 
craft in the harbor. In the end came the story that 



20 FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE BY FIRE AND WATER. 

there had been looting of the bodies of the dead. Some 
of these stories may have been trne. 

HEROIC WORK OF RESCUERS. 

But there was a glorious record of self-sacrifice and 
of bravery to be set over against all that was evil or 
unmanl}'. Of such were the bravery with which the old 
captain and his pilots stayed at their post; the noble efiforts 
of Policemen Kelk and Van Tassel, who were on the 
burning boat, to save the lives of those entrusted to their 
care ; the beautiful recklessness of the women nurses 
and the convalescent patients from the hospitals on 
North Brother Island, risking their lives to dash into 
the water around the burning boat to pull out drowning 
children and women ; the brave deeds of the men on the 
city's boats, the "Franklin Edson " and the " Massa- 
soit," and on the tugs "Theo" and " Wade." 

Some day some one will fittingl}'' write of the deeds 
of that little man, Capt. Jack Wade, and his daredevil 
crew. There was no time for the glorifying of heroes. 
For every one whose deeds were seen and mentally 
registered in the flying moments of horror and peril, 
there were hundreds of others in which the rescued 
were too much scared to appreciate what was being done 
for them and the rescuers were too Ijusv to take note foi 
themselves. 

Ambulances and patrol wagons from nearl}' everj; 
corner of the cit}' were sent to points along The Bronx 
shore nearest the wreck. Physicians and nurses came b}* 
hundreds, not only from hospitals, public and private in 
all the boroughs of the city, but singly, from theirprivate 
offices, from as far away as Newark and Paterson. 

Bodies were sent dcnvn to the Pellevue Morgue from 



FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE BY FIRE AND WATER. 21 

North Brotlier Island as fast as they were recovered, until 
there was no more room there. Most of them were uni. 
dentified. At about five o'clock when the tide was low, 
there was a sudden increase in the rapidity with which 
bodies were recovered. They were brought out of the 
water near where the "Slocum" had been grounded at the 
rate of about one a minute. A temporary morgue was 
established on the island. The systematizing of the work 
of identification went on and it was hoped that nearly all 
the recovered bodies would be recognized. Some of them 
were so badly burned that they will never be recognized. 
All the afternoon and at night great silent crowds, thou- 
sands and thousands of people, stood in front of the church 
in Sixth street, in front of the Morgue and the Alexander 
avenue police station, and along the Bast River shore 
opposite North Brother Island — wherever the bodies of 
victims were laid or where news of them could be learned. 
EXCURSIONISTS GO ON BOARD. 

The "General Slocum" which was built of wood, 
spent Tuesday night at the foot of Fiftieth street. She 
started around the Battery at 7 o'clock next morning. 
Her crew of twenty-seven men were aboard. She reached 
the foot of Third street, in the East River, were there is 
a recreation pier, at about twenty minutes past 8 o'clock. 

There were several hundred excursionists already 
on the pier when the "Slocum" arrived. There were 
mothers full of pride in their lusty German- American 
babies, and full of anxiety for fear some of them would 
fall overboard in their haste to get on board the "Slocum" 
before anybody else did. A band came and went to 
the after deck and began booming out melodies dear to 
the German and East Side New Yorker's heart. 



22 FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHK IJV FIRE AND WATER. 

The mothers and children came pouring across the 
gang plank and hurrying for ''good places" about the 
decks. The Rev. G. C. F. Haas and his assistant, the 
Rev. J. S. Schultz, stood on opposite sides of the gang 
plank and welcomed the mothers and the scholars. Police- 
men Kelk and \"an Tassell, full of experience in the 
handling of Sunda}' school excursions, took posts on the 
off shore side of the steamer, ready to dive after any tow- 
head who, by mischance should fall overboard. It was 
as fine a day for a picnic as ever was. The sunlight made 
the blue water seem as bright as though it la\- anvwhere 
but between the piers of the biggest cit3''ofthis nation. 
The ugly factory walls were set off b}' masts and flags, 
and big boats and little boats seemed rather to be skitter- 
ing over the river for their own amusement than for aii}'' 
purpose of sordid profit. 

BIG FAMIUY PARTIES. 

The excursion was late in starting. Lutherans are 
great folk for going to family picnics in big famil}' 
parties. Greta and Wilhemina and August's wife gather 
from the corners of Manhattan and Brookljni and bring 
all their children, and combine their luncheons so that it 
shall be served to ten or fifteen hungr}' nuiuths in proper 
proportions. And ifan3'one of the whole famil}- circle 
was late, then all the rest went to Pastor Haas and be- 
sought him, by all that was dear and sweet, not to let the 
boat go until sister and her little ones came. Pastor Haas 
was good natured, and it was well along towards lo o'clock 
when the ''Slocum" started, the band on the upper decl{ 
playing "Ein Feste Burg 1st UnserGott." 

The children tugged at their skirts, held down b}'- 
their smiling mothers and big sisters and grandmothers, 



P-RIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE BY FIRE AND WATER. 23 

and cheered at the departing pier. There was not a chill 
in the air. There was not a cloud on the blue sky. Pastor 
Haas went up and down the decks, and the matrons 
loudly communicated their congratulations to him. 

Hell Gate, where the tide was rushing out to the 
Sound with the utmost violence, was passed safely. There 
isn't a steamer captain in this harbor, no matter though 
he be as old as Capt. Van Schaick, who is not glad when 
he has passed through Hell Gate without a collision and 
without being slewed out of his course against its rocky 
sides. 

DANGEROUS STOREROOM. 

Though Capt. Van Schaick did not know it, the 
steamer must even then have been on fire. Just back of 
the crew's quarters, up in the bow of the steamer under 
the main deck, is what is called the second cabin. On the 
"Slocum" this cabin has been used as a sort of storeroom. 
Spare hawsers and paint and oils were kept there. Gas- 
olene was kept there, and it was there that Albert Payne, 
a negro steward, kept the ship's lamps when they were 
not in place and cleaned and filled them. Payne, his 
face ashy with the horrors he had been through, swore 
that he had finished cleaning all the lamps before the 
boat left her dock at West Fiftieth street early Wednes- 
day morning and that he had not been in the room 
except to see that everything was all right. He swore 
that just before the boat left Bast Third street the 
second cabin was all right. 

Along the Astoria shore, wheie there are many 
yards for the building of small boats, the trouble was 
known sooner than it was on the steamer itself. As the 
" Slocum " passed Broadway, Astoria, John B. Ronan, a 



2i FRIGHTF"L'L CATASTROPHE BY FIRE AND WATER. 

Dock Department emploj-ee, was struck with the gayety 
of the steamer, with her flags, her music and her load of 
hilarious children, and called to a companion : 

*' Look at the 'Slocum!' Don't it make you hate 
to work when you see a crowd having as good a time as 
that ? " 

But a quarter of a mile further on, William Alloway, 
the captain of a dredge, saw a burst of smoke puff out 
from the lower deck of the " Slocum " just forward of the 
smokestacks. He let off four blasts of his dredge whistle. 
At the same moment other boats on each side of the river 
began to toot shrill warnings. Alloway and his men 
could see a scurrj'ing on the decks of the " Slocum." 
They wondered why Captain \'an Schaick didn't back 
his boat right into the Astoria shore. 

"It seemed to me,'' Alloway said, "as though 
he was having some trouble with his wheel and as 
though she wasn't minding it, and as if he couldn't get 
his signals into his engine room. But anywaj^ he went 
right ahead." 

ALARM AT LAST GIVEN ON BOARD. 

From the best understanding of the situation which 
could be gained from those who were left alive when 
everything was over, it was quite a while after the 
"Slocum'' was first found to be on fire that the serious- 
ness of the situation was understood b\'' all of her officers 
and crew. Very few of the passengers knew anything 
of the real danger they were in until the burning and 
drowning had begun. 

Eddie Flanagan was the "Slocum's" mate. On 
excursion steamers the safety and comfort of the pas- 
sengers are delegated to the mate, while the captain is in 



FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE BY FIRE AND WATER. 25 

the pilot house as he is, very properly, always while the 
boat is in motion. To Flanagan there came a deckhand 
and Steward McGann. He caught Flanagan by the 
shoulder and said : 

"Mate, there's a fire forward and it's got a pretty 
good headwa3^" 

Flanagan jumped down through the dark space in 
the middle of the boat and turned the lever of the fire 
drill alarm. He sent McGann to warn Captain Van 
Schaick. The crew was not enough to handle so many 
passengers. The fire crackled up through one deck after 
another, licking out far on the port side. There was a 
rush for the stern. Some of the children thought that 
the whole alarm was a joke and laughed and pummelled 
one another as they ran. The mothers didn't. They 
lumbered after, trying vainly to keep hold of some one 
garment on the bodies of each one of their youngsters. 

GETTING OUT THE HOSE. 

Captain Van Schaick ran back from the pilot house 
and saw that Flanagan had two lines of hose run from 
the steamer's fire pumps toward the second cabin, and 
that the water was already spurting through them. The 
fire drill on the " Slocum " was always well done. It was 
held, without any requirement of law, once every week. 
But this fire was beyond any mere fire drill. It took 
Captain Van Schaick only a minute to see that he ought 
to get his passengers ashore as soon as ever he could. 
He determined on the north shore of North Brother 
Island. 

It takes time to read of all these things. It took 
almost no time at all for them to happen. The yells and 
screams of the few people who were caught on the decks 



U6 FRIGHTFUL CATASTROI'HK 15Y FIRE AND WATER. 

below the hurricane deck forward were ringing horribly 
across the water. The roar and crackle of the oil-fed 
flames shut these screams off from the frightened mass 
of Sunday school people aft. 

Kelk and Van Tassel had leaped into the crowds 
when the firegongs rang. It was due to them that more 
women and children were not caught forward of the fire. 
They herded the people back like sheep until nearly the 
whole company were huddled together on the broad after- 
decks. The fire was eating its way back steadily. The 
people were getting more and more frightened. Mothers 
whose children had been sej^arated from them in the rush 
were getting frantic and dashing madly through the 
crowd. Confusion grew almost as fast as the fire at the 
other end of the boat was growing. Van Tassel took to 
the rail. 

TRYING TO QUIET THE CROWD. 

"Now, everybody keep quiet !" he shouted again 
and again, waving his big arms reassuringly at women 
who were grasping the rail and already leaning over and 
trying to make up their minds to jump. 

Pastor Haas had found his wife and his twelve-year- 
old daughter Gertrude and had put them near the back 
of a companionway, where he was sure he could find 
them. He, too, tried to calm his people. He might as 
well have tried to calm the whirling tide that was bearing 
the burning steamer along to its end. They were fight- 
ing now. Mothers who had started side by side with an 
endless fund of sympath}' for domestic difficulties were 
fighting like wild beasts. 

Screams came from the water. A woman looked 
over and saw three children floating b}^ on the starboard 



FRIGHTFUL CATASTROPHE BY FIRE AND WATER. 27 

side. The head of one of them was covered with blood 
where a blade of the paddlewheel had wounded it. The 
woman screamed just once, so loud that for a moment all 
the other horrible sounds of the boat seemed hushed. 
She pointed a finger at the little bodies that were floating 
back from the forward decks. 

"Frieda!" she screamed. "Meine Frieda!" 
Before a hand could be raised to stop her, if indeed 
there was any one there at that moment cool enough to 
raise a hand, the mother jumped on the seat and threw 
herself over the rail. She sank, whirling over and over 
in the swift current. So did the children. But other 
bodies came. As the flames worked upward and back- 
ward more people were driven to jump to escape being 
burned. Mercifully, the pilot house, being forward and 
up in the air, was in a position which the flames found it 
hard to reach. The captain and his pilots were able to 
keep steering. 

It seemed to be the captain's purpose as he came up 
past 130th street to try to find a berth on The Bronx side 
of the stream. There are a number of coal and wood 
yards along there and some factories. Rivermen said 
that he might well have carried out his plan. The land 
forces of the Fire Department could have reached 
him there. But he said that a tug warned him off, 
telling him that he would only be setting fire to the shore 
buildings and would not be helping his people in the 
least, if he ran in there. 



CHAPTER II. 
OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 

T^HIC ''General Slocuiii," observed now by hundreds of 
^ horror dazed people on both sides of the stream and 
on the islands, turned again towards North Brother. 
Steamers and tugs from far down stream were making 
after her. The Department of Correction boat "Alassasoif 
was on the f;ir side of the Brother Island. Her captain 
lay in wait for the "Slocuni," not knowing through what 
channel she would come. From downstream came the 
slim, white "Franklin Edson," the Health Department boat. 
Thence, too, came the sturdy little "Wade," with her tough 
talking, daredevil, great hearted little captain, Jack 
Wade. Therecamealsothetugs "Theo" and "Easy Time," 
tooting their whistles, headed for the burning steamer. 

On board the "Slocum" horror was being piled on 
horror too fast for auj^one to keep track of them. The 
fire, leaping now high above the frame work of the 
steamer's hog back, and roaring \Tith a smoky glare of 
red tongues up thirty feet over the tall brown smoke- 
stacks, had begun to scorch the edges of the compact 
mass of women and children who were crowding back out 
of its way at the rear end of the boat. 

The greater number of these people b}- far were on 
The Bronx side of the decks. They seemed to feel, poor 
creatures, that, small as their chance for rescue was, when 
it came it would come from the thickly-populated shore 
rather than from the bleak, rocky, bare spaces on the 
islands on the starboard side. The "Slocum" was now 
28 



PUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 



29 



opposite I38tli street, heading partly across the river 
toward North Brother Island. 

With a crack and echoing volley of screams that set 
on edge the teeth of men hardened to almost any form of 
death or evidence of pain, the port rail of the "Slocnm's" 
after-deck gave way and all the people near it slipped 
and slid, one over another, into the water. She had 
hardly gone 200 yards further on— indeed, by ones 
and threes and twos and sevens, gaily dressed women and 
little tots all in white were seen whirling down from the 
deck into the racing tide— when worse came. The 
steamers and tugs in pursuit were catching up one 
woman here or a child there, but it was not much they 
could do. The tide was too swift, and there was too much 
work to be done ahead to warrant any delay over indi- 
viduals. 

CLOUD OF SMOKE AND FLAMES. 
There was a puff like a great cough down in the 
''Slocum's" inwards. A red starry cloud of sparks and 
smoke and flames shot up and the greater part of the 
superstructure aft plunged forward into the flames. How 
many hundreds of lives were snuffed out m that one 
instant nobody will ever know. Outsiders could see 
writhing, crawling figures in the burning wreckage slip- 
ping down further and further into the flames until they 
were gone. As bees cling along a branch when they are 
swarming, there was a thick clustering of women all 
screaming, and boys and girls around the edges of so 
much of the superstructure as was still standing. 

At the very back Kelk, the policeman, was standing 
catching up some of the smallest children, and hurling 
them out at the decks of the nearest following steamers. 



80 OUR COUNTRY AC.HAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 

Mothers threw their children overboard and leaped aftvi" 
them. When the .stanchions burned out and the super- 
structure fell families were separated. 

Thus it happened to Dominie Haas. He had given 
up as hopeless any effort to get the people quiet, and had 
just found his wife and daughter. The crash came and 
he lost them. 

BIG STEAMBOAT ALL ABLAZE. 

Now the the big steamer, ablaze for more than two- 
thirds of her 250 feet of length, was rounding the point 
of North Brother Island. The flames were reaching out 
for the pilot-house. The door toward the fire was black- 
ened here and there and the paint blisters were bursting 
with little puffs of fire. But the hundred nurses and the 
tuberculosis patients — all the others had scarlet fever 
and other contagious diseases and were kept indoors — 
gathered eagerly on shore waiting a chance to help, saw 
old man Van Schaick and his pilots at their wheel, 
straining forward as though by their own physical efforts 
they could make the boat go faster. 

The captain and Van Wart are both of scrawnj^ 
hollow-cheeked build. Both have sandy side whiskers, 
cropped close. Van Wart is taller than the captain. 
Weaver, the other pilot, is of heavier build. They made 
a wonderful picture, the three of them. Afterward, when 
the horrors were all over except the most ghastl}' horror 
of all — the piling up and labelling of the dead — men 
spoke of the picture. It was at no moment certain that 
the pilot house would not shrivel up and vanish in a puff 
of smoke. If it did the "Slocuni" would never get close 
enough to the shore to make it possible for help to be 
given to the passengers who were still living. And the 



OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 31 

two old men and the younger, witli never a look back- 
ward, whirled their wheel and braced it, and with their 
teeth set close together and never a word kept their eyes 
fixed on the one little stretch of rocky beach where it 
was possible for a steamer as big as the "Slocum " to be 
beached accurately and safely. 

They succeeded in the fight that they had been mak- 
ing all the way from the Sunken Meadows, where the 
"Seawanhaka" was beached years ago. Captain Van 
Schaick was past the Sunken Meadows, he said, before 
he knew that he had a fire on his boat, and the tide was 
too strong to let him turn back to beach her there, even 
had there been any way of rescue out there in the middle 
of the river. 

SWAM TO BURNING STEAMER. 

The only heartening incidents of the whole horrible 
half hour began happening as soon as the "Slocum's" 
bottom scraped on the North Brother Island shore, about 
twenty-five feet from the sea wall. 

The " Massasoit," which was the closest boat behind 
the "Slocum" when she struck, drew so much water that 
it was impossible to get her bow within fifty feet of the 
"Slocum." It didn't make any difference to Carl Rappa- 
port, her coxswain. He took a running jump forward 
over the bow and swam toward the burning steamer. Like 
a big red-headed St, Bernard, he grabbed two babies and 
swam back to his own boat. Meantime the captain of the 
" Massasoit " was putting boats overboard as fast as he 
knew how. When these were out picking up people from 
the water wherever they could, Rappaport was floun- 
dering around helping from the water side. 

The "Franklin Kdson," with her new clean coat of 



32 OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 

white aud gilt paint, drew less water than the " Massa- 
soit," and went right up to the "Slocum's " side so that 
people jumped from the burning decks and were dragged 
back to safety. For safety was not on the forward deck 
of the " Edson." Her forward windows were cracked by 
the heat and there are the marks of flames for the forward 
thirty feet of her superstructure. 

Jack Wade, master and owner of his little tug, curs- 
ing like a truckman stuck in the middle of a Broadway 
jam, was pitching his life-preservers over, turning loose 
his boats and pushing up so close to the burning decks 
that the hair on his brawny arms frizzed and his men had 
their shirts burned off their backs. It wasn't worth while 
aftenvard to attempt to get this crew to tell how many 
lives it saved. They had been too busy to count. 

SHOVED HIM OVERBOARD. 

Rudd}' McCarroll was plain beaten out for the first 
time in his life. The effort which finished him had been 
getting a verj' heavy German woman over the side, single 
handed. When she was aboard she began to scream. 
Ruddy laid himself out flat, face down along the rail, and 
was sure he was going to die, he was so exhausted. He 
heard the fat woman say : 

" Wake up, 3'ou ! wake up ! " but he didn't know she 
was talking to him. 

'' There is my Clans in the water," she screamed. 
Without more ado she shoved Ruddy overboard. He 
floundered around, caught the boy, and managed to get 
aboard again. The fat woman grabbed Clans and started 
down the boat with him. Rudd}- shook his head with a 
look that was almost a smile, and then fell on his face in 
a faint. 



OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 



33 



All along the shore, as the burniug steamboat had 
come along the stream on the breast of the tide, fire 
alarms had been rung. One alarm at the foot of 138th 
street was rung three times. There was nothing the fire- 
men could do when they came, except just one thing, 
which was done at once. The captain of the first company 
to arrive at the river's edge telephoned for the fireboat 
"Zophar Mills." She came up the river, screaming, with 
a voice that outscreamed all the other whistles which 
were being blown in every factory and yard from which 
the blazing steamship could be seen. The captain of the 
"Mills" saw that the '\Slocum" was beached and that 
rescuers were more needed than pumpers of water. He 
ran into 138th street and took aboard Captain Geohegan 
and all the reserves ofthe Alexander avenue station and 
took them over the river to help in the work of picking 
people out of the water from rowboats and tugs. There is 
a big marble works opposite North Brother Island. The 
boss, when he saw the "Slocum," knocked off all work 
and sent his 150 men across in any and every sort of a 
craft that they could lay their hands on. 

HUNDREDS OF RESCUERS AT WORK. 

Meantime the hundred nurses and the tuberculosis 
patients were doing wonderful things. Delicate-looking 
young women, in the dainty white uniforms which nurses 
wear, ran down to the water's brink and waded in up to 
their necks and formed human chains, along which strug- 
gling half-drowned refugees were passed. Miss O'Don- 
nell, the assistant nurse in charge, went out and brought 
m seven dead people and eight living. Every other 
nurse in the place was doing nearly as well Dr 
Watson, the head ofthe hospital, was out in the water 

N.Y. 3 



S4 OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 

w-ith tliem. clieeriug them on. Mary McCann, a 
sixteen-year-old, a ward helper, just over from Ireland, 
swam out four times and each time brought a liviuK 
child to the shore. 

Even though relieved by these evidences— but one 
or two out of hundreds that happened unrecorded— of the 
working of good and brave human hearts, the misery and 
the horror were going on almost undiminished. The 
great hulk was still burning like a furnace on top of the 
water. Living men and women were still rolling out 
from her decks. Hundreds sought shelter from the heat 
under the paddle boxes, which seemed slow to burn. In 
there, among the wet paddle blades, the rescue boats 
were tilled again and again. 

BOY CLIMBS FLAGSTAFF. 
Long after every one had given up any idea that 
there was a human life in the forward part of the boat, 
except those of Captain Van Schaick and his two pilots, 
there was a shout of surprise and agony on shore. A 
small boy— he seemed about six years old— climbed up to 
the flagstaff and began to make his way up as though to 
get away from the deck, which was burning under him. 
He climbed a little higher and a little higher with each 
jump of the tongues of flame from below, until he was 
almost at the top. 

He was a sturdy looking little chap, and each time 
he found he had not gone far enough, he would shake 
his yellow curls determinedly and work his way a tew 
inches more. It was a brave fight. He lost it. The 
flagstaff began to tremble, just as a boat was getting 
around in position to get at the child. The staff fell 
back into the floating furnace, and the boy with it. 



OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 35 

As fast as dead and living were brought ashore, the 
weaker of the convalescent patients took them and car- 
ried them up on the lawn. There was a constantly in- 
creasing number of physicians coming over from the 
mainland, some of them in row-boats. Every burnt 
woman or child who showed any signs of life was carried 
into the buildings. The nurses' quarters and the doc- 
tors' quarters and the stables and every place that had a 
roof where cots could be erected was filled — except those 
in which there were contagious diseases. 

DEAD LYING IN ROWS. 

The dead were laid out in long rows on the grass. 
The living walked or were carried b}" them. Heartrend- 
ing recognitions were there ; women throwing themselves 
on the bodies of their children, children catching at their 
mothers' hands and begging them to ''wake up," and 
screaming inconsolabl}' when the}- realized that there 
would be no waking up. 

There was too much to be done at once for any list 
to be kept of those who were rescued. The Rev. Mr. 
Haas was pulled out of the water in which he had fallen 
soon after she beached, and found to be not very badly 
injured. But it was more than an hour before he could 
be found and identified. 

On many of the bodies which were recovered were 
life preservers which seemed to have been perfectly 
worthless. Assistant District Attorney Garvan's atten- 
tion was called to a collection of the "Slocum's" life-pre- 
servers which had been made by Captain Jack Wade. 
These life-preservers were covered with such flims}-, 
rotten stuff that they could be ripped open b}- a scratch 
with one's thumbnail. They were filled with ground-up 



86 OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 

cork instead of with solid chunks which would retain 
their buoyancy. Captain Wade, who threw away a hun- 
dred dollars' worth of reall}' good life-preservers to the 
"Slocum's" passengers, was highly indignant over the 
matter. 

"Look what the}' let a boat of 2,500 passengers 
carrj'," he said, "and then look at what they make me 
buy, when I'm only licensed to carry eighteen." 

The work of recovering bodies went on steadily from 
the time when all hope of saving more lives ended. 
Nearly a hundred policemen, assisted by men from all 
the hospitals and morgues, went out in small boats and 
waded out and worked from the shore and from the decks 
of the tugs with grappling hooks, dragging up all that 
was left of victims of the disaster. The bodies of some 
of those who were burned were in indescribabl}- horrible 
condition, and only with the greatest difficulty could 
be singled out and identified. 

A SHOCK OF SENSIBILITIES. 

In the rush and confusion there were many things 
which in the face of a disaster less appalling would have 
shocked the sensibilities of the most hardened man who 
witnessed them ; such, for instance, as the sight The 
vSun tug encountered on one of its trips across to North 
Brother Island — a rowboat, with two men at the oars, and 
a small boy, who was holding a line by which were towed 
the bodies of three women, dressed, all three, in flimsy 
white dresses. Nobody was to blame. The boat would 
have been swamped with the three bodies inside. 

At 10.30 o'clock at night 415 corpses had been re- 
covered and tagged at North Brother Island. Fifty had 
been recovered at other points. They included a dozen 



OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. S7 

that had first been landed at Oak Point. More were com- 
ing at the rate of twenty an hour. 

The police of the harbor squad, assisted by volun- 
teers, were wading and rowing about the shore picking 
them up with grappling hooks. So numerous were the 
corpses that early in the evening bodies were recovered 
at the rate of one a minute. 

All the boats used by the police and other workers 
were equipped with lanterns. In addition lights were 
hung on poles that had been stuck in the mud along the 
shore of the island. The police boat "Patrol" stood by 
constantly with a big searchlight played on the waters. 
The employees of the hospital rigged up temporary lines 
of incandescent lights along the lav.m to aid those at work 
in tabulating and searching the bodies. 

LAID IN GROUPS. 

As soon as the bodies were taken from the water they 
were laid in groups of four each. They were first tagged 
and then searched. All jewels, papers and valuables 
taken from the bodies were thrown into huge bags. Each 
batch of valuables taken from a body was tagged with 
the number corresponding with that on the body. 

After the searching and tagging of the bodies had 
been completed photographs were taken of the groups of 
four. This was done by the use of flashlights. 

Dr. Darlington, president of the Health Board, 
arrived early in the afternoon and was still seen superin- 
tending his men and hustling with his coat off at mid- 
night. Coroner O' Gorman was also still there at that 
hour. Police Commissioner McAdoo had left shortly 
before 9 o'clock. 

Before leaving Mr. McAdoo said he would in the 



3K OUR COUNIRY ACWIAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 

near future confer w itli tlic Dock Department concerning 
a plan to have the police hereafter inspect every steamer, 
excursion or otherwise, before it leaves a dock. In 
this way the Coniniissioner sa3-s he thinks another 
terrible disaster as that which befell the "Slocum" might 
be averted. 

Just as he was leaving the island some one called 
Mr. McAdoo's attention to the fact that the work in 
caring for the dead was made doubl}' difficult owing to 
the lack of proper light. As soon as he was told this the 
Commissioner hurried to a telephone and called up the 
office of the superintendent of the INIetropolitan Street 
Railway. " Will 3'ou help the city of New York out?" 
asked Mr. McAdoo. " In a minute !" was the reply. 
" Well, then send up six of those gasolene flare lights 
3^ou folks use when repairing the tracks at night," said 
the Commissioner. 

MANY WILLING HELPERS. 

"We will send twenty-six if 3'ou want them," said the 
representative of the street railwa3''compan3\ Mr. McAdoo 
said that six would be enough. It was just fifty minutes 
later that a boat containing the requested lights reached 
the island. Two were placed on the lawn, where the 
bodies were being tagged. The other four were stationed 
along the shore and greatly aided the men at work in the 
water. The powerful lights illuminated the faces of the 
dead on the lawn most plainl}-. 

Evervbod}'' praised tlie doctors, nurses and eniploj-ees 
of the hospital on North Brother Island. All hands 
there pitched in and worked unceasingly from the 
time the burning boat was first seen until late at night. 
Then many of them, especially the women, actually 



OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE iRAGEDY. 39 

fell from exliaustion. Dr. Darlington ordered all 
hands to retire, but some insisted on working. 

At II o'clock at night Diver John Rice returned 
from the wrecked steamer with four bodies of children. 
They had been found in the afterhold of the vessel. Rice 
said that the divers had decided to make no more descents 
into the wreck, as it was plain to them that their labor 
would be useless. 

"We searched the forward part of the boat," said 
Diver Rice, " and could find no bodies. She has settled 
down with a crash into the middle and we couldn't 
explore that part. I suppose there are a lot of bodies 
there, but the wreckers will have to get in their work 
before anj'^one can get in the centre of the vessel. 

"The working crew are going to work on that part 
and they say that if necessary to clear it they will split 
the boat in two parts. We divers will go out in the 
morning again." 

EXACT TIME OF THE DISASTER. 

The watches on all the dead recovered early in the 
afternoon had stopped at 10.20 o'clock. The watches 
taken out at night had stopped at 10.25 o'clock. 

Dr. Darlington was reinforced by a large number of 
inspectors from the Health Department late at night. 
They devoted their time entirely to tagging the bodies 
and arranging for their transfer to Bast Twenty-sixth 
street. 

The only one of the ten members of the Krckling 
family of Nutley, N. J., who was saved was a two-year- 
old baby. She was saved by the nurse, Louise Gayling. 
The Gayling girl is twelve years old and was hired to 
watch the baby. She had the baby when the crowd 



40 OUR COUNTRY AGHAST AT THE TRAGEDY. 

rushed panic-stricken to the rear of the boat. When she 
saw that they couldn't live aboard the boat the little 
uurse and her charge jumped overboard. 

" I went down under the water, but I still kept hold 
of the baby," said the Gayling girl. "I went down twice, 
and the second time I came up beside a board. I held 
on to the bab}' with one arm and grabbed the board with 
the other. I didn't know whether the baby was alive or 
not. Finally some men came in a boat and took us in. 
When they told me the baby was alive I couldn't 
believe it." 

John Ansel of 103 East Fourth street, whose wife 
and two young sons were on the "Slocum," picked out 
one after another of five bodies at the Alexander avenue 
station as that of his wife. The man w-as crazy wnth 
grief. 

He told the police that early in the day he had 
received a message from Germany telling of the death of 
his father, and within five minutes heard of the disaster 
to the "Slocum," on which were his wife and children. 

Coroner Berry got from Ansel the initials on the 
inside of his wife's wadding ring, and a body which was 
not one of those picked out b}^ Ansel, but which had 
already been identified by -the dress as that of Mrs. Eliza- 
beth Diehl of 905 East Fifth street, was found to be Mrs. 
Ansel's. The ring was all that made identification 
possible. 



CHAPTER HI. 

SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIER 

Tlie following telegram was received at St. Mark's 
Lutheran Church on the night of the disaster: 

George C. I^. Haas, Pastor. 

Accept my profound sympathy for yourself, church 
and congregation. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

The Rev. Haas, who was prostrated at his home, was 
too ill.to receive the message. It would have required 
nerves of steel to bear up under such a sudden and fatal 
bereavement. President Roosevelt's message was given 
to the public through the press, and showed how pro- 
foundly he was moved by the great calamity, offering 
his heartfelt condolences for the bereaved. 

All day long, from sunrise until darkness shut 
off even the melancholy satisfaction of watching for 
the dead, anxious searchers kept up their unceasing 
vigilance, and at midnight there had been recovered 561 
bodies, for the great part women and children — mothers, 
who weeks before had planned that outing for their 
children ; little ones who had longed for the coming of 
the happy day. 

As time lapsed the disaster swelled in sickening 
burden of overwhelming tragedy, more dramatic in detail 
than any playwright's genius has conceived of horror, 
and soul-bereaving in its pathos, because of the innocent 
years and hopeless helplessness of its victims. 

41 



42 SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 

Human sympathy, "swelling like the Solwa}' tide," 
could scarce grasp the all-pitiless desolation which laid 
waste the flower of scores of homes and rent to incon- 
solable bleeding hundreds of hearts- 
Messages of sympathy flowed in a steady stream 
from all parts of Europe and America, all attesting alike 
the inconceivably appalliiig immensity of the catastrophe. 
The East Side had its human sympathies aroused 
to the full, and down by the river, where the boats 
unloaded their dead, thousands gathered throughout the 
day. Streets leading to the Morgue were blocked, and 
only with difficulty could the police keep clear the pas- 
sages leading to the long rows of coffins for those who 
came to search for the missing. 

DIVERS SEARCHING THE WRECK. 

Up the Sound, where the hulk of the " General 
Slocum " lies submerged, showing only a paddlebox, 
scores of small craft aided the tugs in grappling for the 
victims. Divers went down time and again, and when 
their work ended for the day they declared there were 
no more bodies in the wreck. 

A score of times a diver reappeared after his plunge 
with the bod}' of a woman or a child. Two of them 
coming to the surface together on one occasion had in 
their arms two little girls — sisters — clasped in each 
other's embrace, and their mother, it was thought, 
whose dead hand tightl}' clenched the skirt of one of 
them. 

As far as it was within their power the divers 
searched tlie wreck from stem to stern, but there were 
masses of broken timbers through which it was almost 
impossible to explore, and it may be that some will find 



SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 43 

a grave under those sunken timbers until the hulk is 
raised or the waters of the Sound wash away the last 
trace of the wreckage. 

There were a number of places where the living 
might have landed, and it was believed that many who 
were reported missing were safe, and eventually would 
be heard from by the officials who had the rescue work 
in hand. Indeed, a surprising number of persons re- 
ported missing were found to have been saved, thus cut- 
ting the list of missing down considerably as well as the 
probable mortality list. 

Many persons were injured in the panic that fol- 
lowed the originating of the fire on the " General Slo- 
cum," and at least 200 persons were taken to the hospi- 
tals. 

LIVE BODY TO\A^ED FOR MILES. 

Perhaps the most remarkable case in the many 
appalling experiences of those who were on the "Slo- 
cum'' was that of Miss Clara Hartman, who was picked 
up for dead, towed behind a boat for several miles, wrap- 
ped in a tarpaulin and tagged as dead, and then recovered 
consciousness at the Alexander Avenue Police Station. 
It was believed she would recover. 

Although many of the bodies taken to the Morgue 
were very badly mutilated, and the clothing in many 
cases almost entirely burned off, valuables were taken 
from them and were in the keeping of city officials, to the 
extent of $200,000 or more. Several of the men and 
women had the savings of a lifetime on them when they 
perished. Much jewelry, it was reported to the police, 
had been lost, but an explanation may be found in the 
fact that it was destroyed by fire rather than stolen. 



44 SCENES OF OVKRWHKLMING GRIEF. 

Mayor McClellau, after receiving messages of con- 
doleuccs from many sources, visited North Brother Island 
and later visited the Morgue. He issued a proclamation 
to the citizens of New York and appointed a relief com- 
mittee of prominent men. And relief was sadly needed 
in that little East Side territory which the vast majority 
of those that perished were accustomed to call home. 

Among the people who had miraculous escapes 
were Florence Weiss and Mrs. Nicholas Schumacher. 
Some one threw them from the " Slocum " upon a tug, 
and dozens of others came tumbling down on top of 
them. They were not hurt. They said the boat burned 
like a paper box. 

JUMPED AND CAUGHT A WOMAN. 

Minnie Weiss, 13 years old, was on the bow of the 
excursion steamer. She saw smoke and then a tongue 
of flames eating its way along the top deck toward where 
she stood. The crowd made a rush forward. She 
climbed down the side and got to the first deck, where 
there was no fire. She jumped into the water and 
caught hold of a woman who had a little boy in hei 
arms. A rope was thrown to them from the '' Massa- 
soit," and tlic}'^ were dragged on board. Minnie was 
with her mother, Mrs. Otto Weiss, and her brother 
George, who was 15 years old. She thought that both 
were lost. 

George Kirschner, 13 3'ears old, jumped from the 
"Slocuni " and swam ashore. His mother, brother, sister, 
grandfather and two cousins were with him. He said 
he thought they were all lost. 

From out of the wreck off Hunt's Point and from the 
Sound the bodies of forty-one more victims of the 



SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 45 

*'Slocum" tragedy were recovered next day after the 
disaster. Two of this number only came from the wreck 
itself— the charred remains of an infant and another of a 
girl perhaps thirteen. The remainder, some so burned 
by fire that they might never be recognized, came from 
out the eddy off North Brother Island. 

It was a day of persistent, systematic search, with 
the police and all other departments working harmoni- 
ously on the water or anywhere and everywhere their 
mournful duty called them. It was a day that saw the 
pier heads of The Bronx for hours black with morbid 
humanity ; that saw the water alive with small craft, 
kept in check only by the most vigilant police super- 
vision, and, strangest of all, it was a day that saw steam- 
boat after steamboat, jammed to the guard rails with 
excursionists, pass and repass the scene, bands playing, 
children and young people dancing, while the elders 
rushed to the side to see the wreck. 

TRYING TO USE SEARCHLIGHTS. 

Work around North Brother Island proceeded slowly 
after ten o'clock on Wednesday night, although the tired 
policemen and the score or more boatmen were ready and 
willing to continue the work of grappling. During the 
night a city tug came up and tried to play a searchlight 
over the narrow stretch of water where it is thought the 
majority of the lives were lost, but this only blinded the 
men at work and gradually the number of searchers was 
lessened until after two o'clock, when the work was prac- 
tically at a standstill. 

Coroner O' Gorman and his assistants, who had 
worked valiantly, handling nearly four hundred and 
eighty bodies in little more than twelve hours, went home 



4C, SCENES OF 0\'ERWHKLMING GRIEF. 

for some needed rest. Dr. Stewart, in charge of the 
i.slaiid, prevailed upon his staff of surgeons, nurses and 
attendant.s, and even convalescent patients, to try to take 
a few hours' sleep. 

Only along the seawall was there any sign of life, 
and there the lanterns of the police in one section lighted 
up a half dozen men separating and sorting the odds and 
ends of wearing apparel, while in another section near 
the little red brick morgue, were men working on coffins 
of rough pine against the certain need of the morrow. 
All night long, too, the police patrol steadily followed 
the water's edge for the entire circumference of the 
island seeking for other bodies. 

MANY BOATS ON HAND. 

It was just daybreak when the search was renewed 
with vigor. So soon as the men could see Captain Dean, 
of the police boat patrol, had three boats, each holding 
four men, out with grappling hooks. By Inspector 
Albertson's orders three other boats manned bj'' police- 
men joined them. Within an hour a dozen boats in 
which were watermen of experience specially hired were 
in the little fleet. 

They had not well begun when up through Hell 
Gate came the JMerritt-Chapman Wrecking Company's 
derrick tug, " The Hustler," drawing three small diving 
barges. Captain F. J. Risedorf was in command of this 
fleet, and with him were Albert Rlumberg, Henry Heyer 
and Peter Rice, divers. They did not tarry at the island 
but went north where the low tide off Hunt's Point 
showed the starboard paddle box of the ill-fated steamer 
and a few burnt and charred spars. 

About seven o'clock came the Sound fleet making 



SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 47 

New York after their night's run. Immediately that the 
pulsations of the great screws had passed came the har- 
vest of the dead. One after another, in several cases two 
at a time, the searchers came to the shore with bodies. 
Now it was mother clasping her infant, now an elderly 
woman, a young woman, and child after child. Some had 
but a vestige of their clothing left on them, telling of a 
death by flames 

DRO^A/'NED BY MONEY, 

One of the bodies found was that of a middle-aged 
man, and the grappling hooks found him not ten feet 
from the beach. In his pockets when he was brought 
ashore was found a bag weighing fully twenty pounds, 
filled with nickels, pennies and small silver. Who he was 
was not known at the Island. 

S. H. Bergh, one of the citizen searchers, found the 
body of Mr. Grif&ng at this time. He weighed nearly 300 
pounds, and in his effort to secure him Mr. Bergh fell 
overboard. A moment later another hook caught a baby 
carriage. The flames had sadly burned this, but still 
inside, as if some mother had rolled it overboard, was 
found the body of a child, unrecognizable. 

It was nine o'clock then, and Coroner O'Gorman, 
accompanied by his physician, Dr. Curtin ; Jeremiah 
Fahey, chief clerk; Police Sergeant Posthoff", Alderman 
Dougherty and William Mahoney, returned and found 
awaiting them sixteen bodies picked up during the morn- 
ing. These were ticketed and their valuables and other 
distinguishing marks noted. The Coroner then estimated 
that he had nearl}^ one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' 
worth of securities, money and jewelry awaiting identifi- 
cation. 



48 SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 

There were watches by the peck, almost, and several 
hundred rings of all description. From one woman, Mrs. 
Susie Zingcr, $32,000 in securities, a bank book and val- 
uable jewelry had been taken. The bank book showed 
that she was a trustee for her daughter. From another 
woman, still unidentified, six rings, three of them dia- 
mond, had been taken. 

The rising of the tide then brought more bodies to 
the surface. One was that of a woman apparently about 
thirty-five years of age. She wore a gold ring engraved 
on the inside with the letters "A. F.," then a wide space 
and the word "Hope." Within an hour the number of 
recovered dead reached twenty-six. 

FIFTY MOKE RESERVE POLICEMEN. 

By this time the crowd of the curious had begun to 
gather on tlie water in small boats, while the pier heads 
across the channel were crowded. Then it was that Dr. 
Stewart, representing Health Commissioner Darlington, 
gave orders that no one but persons having business were 
to be permitted to land, while Inspector Albertson, with 
Sergeant Lane, of the West 15 2d street station, sent out 
police boats as a guard and landed fifty more reserve 
policemen on the island. 

The regular attendants at the hospital, wearied b}'- 
their hours of labor on the previous day and night, sought 
to bring about order on the island. The w^ell-kept lawns 
were ruined, trampled by many feet and cut up by ve- 
hicles and ambulances ; clothing was scattered every- 
where — here a hat, a skirt, a baby's shoe, a handkerchief, 
all water-soaked or scorched. Over near the scarlet fever 
ward was a high pile of coffins for children, made during 



SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 49 

the niglit, and not far away, against another ward, was a 
similar pile for adults. 

Dr. McLaughlin, after he had made his rounds, said 
that so far as he could tell, not one of the tuberculosis 
patients who assisted in the work of rescue on Wednes- 
day was suffering any ill effects. The nurses, too, were 
recovering from their hard labors. Several swam or waded 
out to pull in drowning and had administered to the in- 
j ured for hours. 

Mrs. Kate White, the matron, whose entire staff of 
cooks and waiters had been busy far into the night 
making coffee and cooking for the searchers, were better 
for a few hours' rest. Mrs. White had not ceased work- 
ing at night, and with her assistants had fed every 
searcher several times during the day. 

GREAT FLEET OF SMALL BOATS. 

Around the wreck of the steamer, where the Merritt- 
Chapman Wrecking Company men were at work, a great 
fleet of small boats, untrammelled by police rules or 
regulations, gathered early. 

Blumberg and Heyer were the first to go beneath 
the surface, and for two hours they went slowly over 
the wreck from bow to stern. Only once did a helmet 
appear, and that was when one of them came slowly to 
the top, and in his arms bore little more than a fragment 
of a baby burned to a crisp. The helmet was not re- 
moved and no word was said. By signs he made it under- 
stood that the body had been found forward, wedged in 
against a stanchion of the upper deck. At noon the men 
reappeared. 

"She lays," said Blumberg, "in the mud on her port 
side. There is eighteen feet of water at low tide aft and 

N.Y. 4 



60 SCLNES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 

a little more forward. So far as I can see, the hull of 
the 'Slocum' is intact, aud unless they have been warped 
by heat, the engines and boilers are in fairly good condi- 
tion." 

"Only the upper deck is gone." said Heyer. "I went 
from one end to the other on the lower deck looking for 
a hatchway in which bodies might be found. The 'Slo- 
cum' was shallow aud there is no hatchway, I believe. I 
am sure there are no more bodies in the boat." His partner 
shook his head in corroboration. 

"There may be some about the wreck," added Blum- 
berg. "Of course, if they were burned when she listed 
they slid off to port and the tide may have wedged them 
underneath, but they are not so mau}^ as some people 
believe. I couldn't find any when I walked around 
b.er." 

EXCURSION STEAMERS VISIT THE SCENE. 

The tide was full then and the men did no more 
diving until it was slack again. It was at this time that 
the fleet of excursion steamers began to pass. First came 
the "Sirus," of the Iron Steamboat Compau}', bound up 
the Sound. So great was the rush of her fifteen hundred 
or more of passengers that the steamboat listed so badly 
to port that the captain turned her head away. 

Before the "Sirus" had reached North Brother Island 
a band had been playing a popular air, but there it be- 
came silent, nor did it play while the boat passed the few 
remainiug spars which marked the resting place of the 
"Slocum." 

Not half an hour later followed the "Cygnus," of the 
same line, also crowded to the guards. She, too, listed 
under the rush of persons eager to see the wreck. After- 



SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 51 

ward along came the "Favorite," bearing the F. J. Good- 
win Association, its baud playing and flags a-flying. A 
Starin line barge followed then and an hour later came 
another barge. 

Work, although uninterrupted, was little rewarded 
at high water or immediately after the tide had turned, 
but about three o'clock body after body was recovered, 
when the "Massasoit," of the Health Department arrived,' 
there were awaiting on the pier for a journey to the 
Morgue just thirty-six bodies. Piled tier on tier, the cof- 
fins reached from bow to stern on the boat. 

COMMENT OF HEALTH COMMISSIONER. 

Mayor McClellan arrived in the afternoon. He was 
accompanied by Health Commissioner Darlington an 
Deputy Corporation Counsel Breckenridge. As the Mayor 
landed on the pier policemen passed before him along 
the little path bearing the body of a young girl on a 
stretcher. The little procession paused and the Mayor 
sorrowfully shook his head. 

"It is awful," he said to Dr. Darlington. 

The Mayor's stay was not of long duration. He 
went to the home of Dr. Roberts, where he congratulated 
the staff on its work, and inquired as to the health of the 
^nurses and patients who had worked on the day before. 
Charles and Fred Barclay, who, in the auxiliary sloop 
had picked up more than fifty persons the day before, were 
brought before him, and warmly commended. Then the 
Mayor visited the beach, where he could see the grappling 
men at work. 

Before he returned to the city the Mayor interviewed 
Rice, one of the divers, who assured him that there were 
no more bodies in the boat. He was of the opinion that 



52 SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 

some might be held down by the boat, but he was satis- 
fied there were not many of these. 

With low water and change of the tide the number 
of bodies found increased. Around six o'clock five bodies 
were brought out in as many minutes. There were two 
boys, a girl, woman and a man. The woman had a plain 
gold'wedding ring on her finger, but it was without in- 
itials or lettering. There was nothing in her pockets or 
that of the man to lead to their identity, but m the 
pockets of one of the boys was a note, evidently an "ex- 
cuse" which the lad was to have presented at school 
Thursday morning. It was sent with the other effects 
to the T^Iorgue. 

FOUND BY DIVERS. 
A launch from the wreck brought the second body 
down. This was half the body of a girl of about 15. 
Rice, the diver, in groping through the mud under the 
port side of the "General Slocum,'' had found it there. 
There was absolutely no mark of identification. 

Emblems of mourning appeared on hundreds of 
doorways down in the old German colony that clusters 
about the little red brick Lutheran church in Sixth street. 
Here hung a streamer of black, and across the street a 
cluster of white flowers all but hid the streamer of white 
that told of the death of a baby or of a child of tender 

Down the street a little further perhaps two badges 
of black hung side by side, nor was it infrequent that 
place had been found for one of black and another of 
white in the same street door. 

Walk where one would, from Third avenue to the 
river on the east and from First street in the south to 



SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 53 

Tenth street to the north, the scenes of death, of mourn- 
ers seeking their dead or wailing over their lost ones' 
bodies, of remnants of families all but obliterated, with 
those left behind scarcely able as yet to realize the 
"Slocum" tragedy, were constantly before one. 

From the front windows of little, old-fashioned brick 
dwellings and from the tiers of stories of more modern 
apartment houses flags hung at half mast. Men and 
women swarmed in the streets all day and night, and 
little children talked in whispers of the horror that had 
taken away some of their playmates. It was no unusual 
sign to see a group of women on the sidewalks drying 
their eyes as they condoled with one another. 

With more demands upon them to take care of the 
dead than they dare promise to fulfil, the undertakers in 
that section of the city found their establishments be- 
sieged by relatives of the victims of the catastrophe^ 
begging of them that they arrange for the burial of "just 
one more." Turned away by one undertaker, another 
was sought, and so on until perhaps a mile from the des- 
olate district, an undertaker was found, one who would 
be able to make the arrangements. 

UNDERTAKERS IN CHARGE. 

Four undertakers within a radius of four blocks of 
the little Lutheran church had 145 bodies in their charge 
in the middle of the afternoon, and still they were pleaded 
with to accept more. In the establishment of Jacob Herr- 
lich fifty-two bodies had been cared for, and around the 
comer in avenue A, Philip Herrlich had charge of thirty- 
one, and could handle no more. 

There are about thirty-five undertaking establishments 
between Grand street on the south and Tenth street on 



64 SCENES OK OVKRWHKLMING GRIEF. 

the north, and it was these that were principally con- 
cerned in the burial of the "Slocnm's" dead. Hnrrying 
the bodies from the Morgue as soon as the indentifications 
were made and the permits of removal issued, they were 
taken to the various undertaking establishments for 
preparation for burial. Men who had been working all 
througli Wednesda}' night were in readiness, and the 
bodies \\cre carried away to the homes, where relatives 
or friends awaited them. 

It was impossible for those whose duty it is to prepare 
the dead for burial to care adequately for all. Thus it was 
that in a few isolated cases bodies lay in rough boxes on 
the sidewalks until room could be made within doors for 
their accommodation. 

TEMPORARY BOXES IN USE. 

With this unprecedented demand for their services, 
the undertakers called for assititance upon establishments 
in Brooklyn and thoughout ]\Iauhattan. Temporary 
boxes were all in use earl}- in the morning, and wagon 
loads of them were brought from Brooklyn and from the 
northernmost part of the city. 

The undertakers told the afflicted families that 
arrangements could not be made to furnish at the most 
more than four carriages for the mourners. 

In order to provide hearses it was found necessary 
to draft these vehicles from every establishment in New 
York City, and it was expected that a few would have to 
be brought from New Jerse}'. There were manj^ of the 
families who wanted to delay the funerals until Sunda3^ 
The}' were told that it would be impossible to fix upon 
that clay as all would likely arrive at the same decision 



SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 55 

and it would be impossible for men or Horses to convey 
the dead to their last resting place. 

As matters stood it was believed that some few small 
undertaking establishments entered into contracts that 
they would be unable to fulfil simply because they were 
not equipped with sufficient hearses and other necessaries. 
Some of the larger establishments expected that at the 
last moment they would be forced to take up those con- 
tracts and carry them through. 

Throughout that section of the city the black 
wagons that precede the hearse in the undertaker's duty, 
were rolling through the street and down the avenues 
weighted down by the dead. Wherever one stopped it 
was surrounded by throngs of men, women and children. 

STREET FILLED WITH PEOPLE. 

Until late into the night the street in front of St. 
Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church was filled with 
people. Men trooped up the front steps of the church 
and into the vestibule to inquire for loved ones, their 
countenances portraying a night of sleeplessness and 
hours of anguish. Men and women, their hair whitened 
and their forms bent by age, trudged into the church 
asking for information. 

In the vestibule of the church a long table had been 
placed and at it sat men to note the name of each visitor 
and the names of those inquired for. This " information 
bureau" had been established the day before, but it had 
been run regardless of any system and the records were 
practically valueless. This was changed when Commis- 
sioner McAdoo sent two young policemen there to keep 
official records and transmit them to Police Head- 
quarters. 



5r> SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 

To the right of the steps leading into the church the 
Rev. Frederick Holter, of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 
Jersc}' Cit}'', placed a small table and a placard announc- 
ing that subscriptions would be received to a relief fund. 
Browning, King & Co. sent $ioo, Magistrate Flanimer 
the same amount and Henry Guecker contributed $100. 
By nightfall ^700 had been recorded in the book of con. 
tributions. But this sum was made up by amounts that 
ranged from three cents to $100. 

The smallest amount was contributed b}^ a poorl}'- 
dressed aged woman, who walked up to the little table 
and, laying down three pennies, said: — "It's all I have, 
sir, but I want to give it, sir. God bless you, sir," Three 
workingmen passed her as they walked to the table and 
each of these laid down a five cent piece, the first saying: 
— "We want to give something toward 3'our fund." They 
did not wait to receive the "thank you" that was their only 
receipt. 

PASTOR'S GREAT AGONY. 

Directly in the rear of the church, lay the pastor of 
St. Mark's, the Rev. George C. F. Haas, suffering men- 
tally and physically. All day long respectful groups 
stood in front of the little private residence, eager for 
word from the patient's sick room. The body of Mrs. 
Haas was delivered at the house ealy in the day, but her 
husband was not in a condition then to be told that his 
wife's body had been found and identified but that no 
tidings had come of his little daughter ^Margaret. 

It was nearly six o'clock in the evening after his 
wounds had been dressed, and the Rev. Mr. Haas was 
thought to be in a condition to learn the sad news that 
he was told b}' his physician, by the afflicted man's 



SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 57 

brother, tlie Rev. J. A. W. Hass, and the Rev. Mr. Lock, 
assistant pastor of St. Mark's Church. The patient re- 
ceived the news quietly and only replied: — "It is as I 
feared, and only as I was prepared to hear." 

So many false reports as to his patient's condition 
had been circulated during the day, and all of an alarm- 
ing nature, that Dr. Senken made this statement: 

BULLETIN CONCERNING DR. HAAS. 

"Dr. Haas in the beginning suffered a shock. He 
has improved greatly since and is now convalescing 
rapidly. He is now in full possession of his faculties, 
and we hope in a few days to have him again among the 
workers. The news of his wife's death and the uncer- 
tainty as to his daughter's fate was broken to him this 
evening and he bore up as a brave pastor should." 

There had come to the house of the Rev. Mr. Haas 
during the afternoon this letter from Archbishop Farley: 

The Rev. Mr. Haas: 

Reverend and Dear Sir: — I beg to tender you 
and your afflicted people my most sincere sympathy in 
the presence of the appalling calamity that has fallen 
upon them and you through the burning of the "General 
Slocum"; and I know my feelings are fully shared by 
the whole body of the Catholic clergy and laity of New 
York. 

May the Giver of all strength comfort you and yours 
in this their dreadful hour of sorrow. Believe me, my 
dear sir, verj'- respectfully yours, 

JOHN M. FARLEY, 
Archbishop of New York. 



58 SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 

Great was the band of heroes who rendered conrage- 
ous service in the work of rescue, suggesting the follow- 
ing pertinent lines by our national Secretary of State : 

JIM BLUDSO, OF THE PRAIRIE BELLE. 

BY JOHN HAV. 

Wall, no ! I can't tell wha' he lives, 

Becase he don't live, you see ; 
Leastways he's got out of the habit 

Of livin' like you and me. 
Whar' have you been for the last three year 

That you haven't heard folks tell 
How Jimmy Bludso passed in his checks 

The night of the Prairie Belle ? 
He weren't no saint — them engineers 

Is all pretty much alike — 
One wife in Natchez-under-the-Hill, 

Another one here in Pike. 
A keerless man in his talk was Jim, 

And an awkward hand in a row, 
But he never funked, and he never lied — 

I reckon he never knowed how. 
And this was all the religion he had, 

To treat his engine well. 
Never be passed on the river, 

To mind the pilot's bell ; 
And if ever the Prairie Belle took fire — 

A thousand times he swore 
He'd hold her nozzle agin the bank 

Till the last soul got ashore. 
All boats has their d,iy on the Mississip, 

And her day come at last ; 
The Movastar was a better boat, 

l^ut the Belle; she wouldn't be passed ; 



SCENES OF OVERWHELMING GRIEF. 59 

And so she come tarin' along that night — 

The oldest craft on the line — 
With a nigger squat on her safety valve, 

And her furnace crammed, rosin and pine. 
The fire burst out as she cleared the bar, 

And burnt a hole in the night ; 
And, quick as a flash, she turned and made 

For that wilier bank on the right. 
There was runnin' and cursin', but Jim yelled out 

Over all the infernal roar : — 
"I'll hold her nozzle agin the bank 

Till the last galoot's ashore." 
Through the hot, black breath of the burnin' boat 

Jim Bludso's voice was heard, 
And they all had trust in his cussedness, 

And knowed he would keep his word ; 
And, sure's you're born, they all got off 

Afore the smokestacks fell — 
And Bludso's ghost went up alone 

In the smoke of the Prairie Belle. 
He weren't no saint — but at judgment 

I'd run my chance with Jim 
'Longside of some pious gentlemen 

That wouldn't shook hands with him. 
He seen his duty, a dead sure thing — 

And went for it thar and then ; 
And Christ ain't a-going to be too hard 
On a man that died for men. 



M-^^^ 



CHAPTER IV. 
SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 
OR McCLELLAN, as soon as he arrived at the 



City Hall uext moruing after the traged}-, set the 
official machiner}'' of the municipality in motion to aid the 
afflicted survivors and relatives of those who perished 
to recover and bury the bodies of their dead. His first act 
was to confer with Commissioners McAdoo, Tull}^ and 
Darlington, of the Police, Charities and Health Depart- 
ments, and to instruct that no expense be spared in giving 
assistance wherever necessary. 

He directed Commissioner Darlington to arrange 
without delay for the burial in the Luthern Cemetery on 
Long Island of those bodies which were burned beyond 
hope of recognition. He explained to Commissioner Mc- 
Adoo that the chief necessity for the present was to re- 
lieve the suffering, and that investigation as to the cause 
of the disaster would come later. Then the Ma3'^or issued 
a proclamation appointing a committee of twelve well- 
known men to act as a relief committee, and announcing 
that contributions to aid the survivors might be forwarded 
to him at the City Hall. 

Mayor McClellan said he had no idea as to the 
amount of money the committee would require to assist 
those who are suffering. 

"That will be a matter for the committee to deter- 
mine," he continued. "I hope to hear from the men 
whom I named on this committee b}' to-morrow, so that I 
can arrange for the first meeting. I shall probably call 
the committee together ni3'self and then allow it to take 
whatever course it deems best." 

60 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 61 

As soon as he had completed his arrangements for 
the relief work, the Mayor dictated a letter to the Rev. 
George C. F. Haas, the pastor of St. Mark's Church, ex- 
pressing his own sympathy and the condolences of the 
city at large as its official representative, as follows : 

"On behalf of the people of our city and myself I 
express to you and to your stricken flock the sentiments 
of sorrow which pervade the community at the awful 
calamity which has come upon you. 

" In the hope that we may lessen, in some degree, 
the anguish which 3^ou and your people suffer, I have 
appealed to the generosity of our fellow citizens to render 
financial aid to those who may need it to care for their 
sick and to decently bury their dead. 

" We all hope that courage may be given to you to 
bear up under your great affliction." 

The prompt message from President Roosevelt is 
contained in the preceding chapter. 

MESSAGES OF SYMPATHY FROM ABROAD. 

Even before the Mayor reached the City Hall tele- 
grams from mayors of many of the principal cities of 
the United States expressing sympathy and offering 
assistance had arrived. Messages were received also 
from cities abroad and from private individuals and 
associations in various parts of the world. The first to 
be received was a message from Carter Harrison, Mayor 
of Chicago ; the next was a cablegram from London, 
from Sir Thomas Lipton, who begged to be allowed to 
contribute $i,ooo to a relief fund. The Mayor cabled 
immediately in reply, thanking Sir Thomas for his offer 
and assuring him that the contributions of the citizens 
would be ample to meet the necessities of the situa-tion. 



fe'2 SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 

Other messages were received from Bailie Sorle}'^, 
acting Chief Magistrate of the Corporation of Glasgow ; 
Ma^'or Weaver, of Philadelphia ; Ma3'or Holtzman, of 
Indianapolis; the Polish National Alliance, of Chicago; 
Bishops Derrick and Arnett, of the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, and the School t)f Engineers, of 
Mexico. 

At the suggestion of the Mayor Charles V. Fornes, 
President of the Board of Aldermen, called a special 
meeting of the Board for the purpose of taking action to 
lessen the suffering among the survivors and the rela- 
tives of those who lost their lives. 

At noon the Mayor boarded the tug " Manhattan," 
of the Department of Docks and Ferries, at the foot of 
Fulton Street, East River, and made a personal investi- 
gation of the scene of the disaster. 

PRESIDENT LOUBETS MESSAGE. 

President Loubet, of PVance, sent the following 
message to President Roosevelt : 

Profoundl}' moved by the awful catastrophe of the 
" General Slocum," I have it at heart to address to your 
Excellency niv sincere condolences, and to send to the 
families of the victims the expression of my sorrowful 
sympathy. Emile Loubet. 

President Roosevelt replied as follows : 
I profoundly appreciate the friendship and sympathy 
which proni])ted j'uur Excellency's telegram of con- 
dolence, and I beg you to accept in behalf of the afflicted 
families and the people of the United States my sincere 
thanks. Theodore Roosevelt. 

The following telegram was sent by Mayor Harri- 
son to Mayor McClellan: 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 63 

Chicago sends to New York her heartfelt and 
keenest sympathy on account of the terrible calamity 
which has just occurred. Our own recent catastrophe 
makes us mournfully appreciative of the sorrow into 
which your city has been plunged. Please command us 
if we may be of any assistance whatever. 

Carter Harrison. 

Telegrams and letters of sympathy to the congrega- 
tion of the church are pouring in fast. The following 
message came from the British Sunday School Union, 
London : 

The Sunday School Union, representing two and a 
half million workers and scholars in Great Britain and 
Colonies, assures church and relatives of their profound 
sympathy at the time of this appalling disaster. Heart- 
felt prayers that the Father may vouchsafe comfort and 
sustaining grace. 

Also the following message from the Sunday School 
Chronicle : 

British Sunday school workers deeply grieved at sad 
calamity. Heartfelt sympathy. 

Mayor Weaver sent the following message to Mayor 
McClellan, of New York, yesterday : 

Philadelphia is horrified by the news of the fearful 
accident to the school children on the " General Slocum." 
Our most sincere sympathy is extended to the parents 
and friends, and we are most anxious to do something to 
help you in this great affliction. Will you let me know 
if there is anything we can do ? 

There seemed to be no end to the stories of personal 
experience on board the " Slocum " and in the river. 
Every one was a tale of woe. 

Andrew Ottinger, a clerk in the Street Cleaning 
Department, stood at his door almost bewildered. Of 



64 SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 

six of his family but one returned, Ottinger's son Willie, 
thirteen years old, scarred by flames. Willie told his 
father that when he last saw his mother she was fastening 
life preservers on Andrew and Arthur. She wished to 
put one on Willie, but he said, " Never mind me, I can 
swim." Then someone, the boy believes it was his 
mother, pushed him overboard, and later he was picked 
up by a tugboat. 

A CHILD'S PATHETIC RHYME. 

One of the visitors to St. Mary's Church gave his 
name as N. W. Dillon. The visitor said he was a brother 
of Mrs. Katherine Diamond, whose children, Ma3% eight, 
and Frank, four years old, were not to be found. Mr. 
Dillon was nearly prostrated as he called for "May, 
May," and in one hand he carried a piece of paper on 
which was written in a child's handwriting : 

She meets me on the corner 

At the closing of the day, 
And tells me that she loves me, 

My golden haired May. 

The grief stricken man read the verse over and over, 
sobbing as he showed it to others. 

Young Christian Schoett, the organist of St. Alark's 
Church and one of its Sunday school teachers, was identi- 
fied among the dead on the pier. Two women a moment 
later became hysterical over the body of a young girl in 
the third coffin from that of the young man. She was 
his sweetheart. Young Schoett was nineteen j-ears old. 
He had gone on the excursion with his mother, Josephine, 
his sisters, Katie, ten years old, and Helen, five, and his 
cousin, H^nry Seidewand. All of them lost their lives. 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL (2UARTERS. 65 

Mrs. ScTioett was identified by her son-in-law, Edward 
Yost. He said that the father of the family, Christian, 
was its only survivor. Two friends were guarding him 
constantly for fear that he would end his life in his grief. 
Young Schoett, the church organist, was a gifted musi- 
cian. His af&anced bride was his Sunday school and 
music pupil. They had not yet made public their 
engagement, but the fact was known to their intimate 
friends. 

Mrs. Catherine Diamond fell on her knees before a 
box in which lay the body of a white haired woman about 
sixty years old. Brokenly she made it known that the 
dead woman was her mother, Mrs. Catherine Birming- 
ham. Leaning over the box, she cried : 

A HYSTERICAL WOMAN. 

''You didn't want to go, did you, mother? But I 
insisted on it. I'm responsible for this. I killed you. 
I thought you'd have a fine day's outing. All may be 
right." 

Hysterical the woman rose and looked about her. 
She walked to the first entrance to the pier on the south 
side, where she cried: "Mother, I'm coming," and 
started to plunge in the river. One of the Bellevue 
nurses, who was standing there, caught the woman in 
time. She struggled and fell to the floor and was taken 
to Bellevue, where she was quieted. 

Out of one party of eleven merrymakers aboard the 

"Slocum," all members of one family, only two were 

saved. One was Mrs. Henry Kassebaum, the other being 

her daughter, Annette. Mr. Kessebaum, who visited the 

pier in an effort to identify some of the bodies, said of his 

wife's experiences ou the steamer; 
N.y,5 



66 SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 

" My wife was on the upper deck, a member of a 
party of eleven, all of our family. Henry C. Sclinude, 
one of my sons-in-law, was head deacon of St. Mark's 
Church. He was paying teller for a banking house in 
Broadway. He was there with his wife and their two 
children, Grace, four and one-half years old, and Mildred, 
who was a year and a half old. Mr. Schnude's father and 
mother were also with them. My other daughter, Mrs. 
Frieda Toniport, had with her her two children, Francis, 
four, and Charlotte, two years old. 

"They were all sitting together, listening to the 
band in the stern of the upper deck, my wife says, when 
she heard some children scream. She thought at first 
that a child had fallen overboard. Then the}^ all saw 
flames near the centre of the boat. 

THEY STUCK TOGETHER. 

" 'Stick together ! All of us stick together!' cried 
my wife, but the crowd rushed toward them and pushed 
half the members of the band overboard. Among those 
she saw fall was George Maurer, the baud leader. 

"And then she found herself separated from the 
rest, while the fire was creeping along the deck toward 
her. She told me she saw the pastor, Mr. Haas, his wife 
and daughter, leap overboard, and she thought that he 
was a man who would know when the time had come to 
jump. 

*'So my wife plunged into the water. She sank 
twice, but when she came to the surface she hung on to 
the paddle box of the steamer. She clung there as long 
vs she could and then a man in a sail boat came up and 
rescued her. 

" He took her ashore, where a woman put her in a, 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 67 

carriage and took lier to her home, iu 138th street. This 
stranger gave her dry clothing and sent her home. She 
didn't get there until half-past ten o'clock at night. I can 
tell you, that was a happy moment when I saw her enter. 
I had given her up for lost. 

" Our daughter Annette, when she was separated 
from the party, ran to the hurricane deck and jumped on 
the deck of the tug boat Wade, which came up j ust as the 
fire was closing around her. She broke her leg in the 
jump and was taken to Harlem Hospital." 

FOUND MOTHER AND TWIN BROTHERS. 

Mrs. Katherine Ottinger, and four children, two sets 
of twins, Charley and Emma and Arthur and Andrew, 
were aboard the "Slocum." 

Her husband, accompanied by his two remaining 
daughters, Lillian and Catherine, respectively eighteen 
and nineteen years old, visited the pier, where they came 
across a box in which lay a woman with two little boys 
beside her. 

The younger girl burst into tears as she recognized 
her mother and her twin brothers, Arthur and Andrew. 

Her father went further down the line, where he 
came across the body of an old man whose arms clasped 
a little girl and a little boy. They were Charley and 
Emma. 

Henry Heintz, 12 years old, who lost his mother, 
his aunt and his sister, was dumb because of the ordeal. 
He and his brother George were saved. They stood on 
the middle deck, until it became too hot, when they 
jumped into the water. Henry held on to the paddle 
wheel and was rescued by men iu a tug. When he re- 
covered from the first great shock he could not speak. 



68 SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 

George declared his mother's and aunt's bodies were 
robbed of diamonds and jewelry. He said his raoiher 
had a valuable brooch and his aunt two diamond rings, 
all of which were missing when the bodies were found. 

Fully 90 per cent, of the victims of the disaster were 
insured in tlie three leading insurance companies han- 
dling what is called industrial insurance. 

Unbroken lines of men and women streamed 
through East Twenty-sixth street all day on their way to 
the Morgue. They filed past the rows of bodies laid out on 
the long, covered pier of the Department of Charities 
and endeavored to identify their missing loved ones. 

IMMENSE CROWD AT THE PIER. 

More than twenty thousand persons visited the pier. 
The police complained that at least two-thirds of these 
were morbid curiosity seekers, but they shrugged their 
shoulders and said they were powerless to exclude them. 
It was on the whole an orderly crowd, and the work of 
identification progressed rapidly during the afternoon, so 
that by six o'clock the number of those unidentified had 
been greatly reduced. 

Twice, however, the throngs became unmanageable 
when the police tried to restrain them from invading the 
pier while bodies were being unloaded from steamers. 
Police were thrown from their feet and women were 
trampled underfoot. No one was seriously injured. 

Pathetic and tragic scenes were repeated time and 
time again as the identifiers recognized the faces of 
friends and relatives. Mothers cried out and fainted beside 
the boxes containing bodies of their husbands and babies, 
and one despairing woman tried to throw herself into the 
East River, but was prevented by a Bellevuc nurse. 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 69 

One feature of the scene was the invasion of the 
pier by hundreds of young and fashionably dressed 
women. Many were accompanied by escorts, others 
went unattended, but nearly all were unmistakeably idle 
sensation seekers. 

Two of these women drove over in an automobile. 
The police at First avenue at first refused them permis- 
sion to pass. But the women begged actually with tears 
in their eyes to be allowed to see whether any of their 
friends were among the dead. They smiled later when 
they had gained their point, and walked over to the pier. 
Several other women came in carriages, but the majority 
sauntered over from the Twenty-third street shopping 
district. 

CURIOUS WOMEN THERE. 

Police Captain Shire, of the East Thirty-fifth street 
station, groaned over the continuous influx of curious 
women shoppers. 

'•What can we do?" he exclaimed. "We can*t 
order them away. We can't exclude them from the legiti- 
mate inquirers. It's woman's way, I guess." 

Through the excellent management of the police 
and the authorities of Bellevue and the Charities Depart- 
ment, the crowds were kept moving and congestion was 
prevented. Charities Commissioner TuUy asked Michael 
J. Richard, assistant superintendent of Bellevue, to take 
charge of the pier and the landing and disposition of 
the bodies as they arrived. Mr. Richard was assisted by 
registrars and clerks from the hospital. 

"One of our serious problems," said Mr. Richard, 
"was that of providing a sufiicient number of coffins 
overnight to hold the bodies. The supply on hand at 



70 SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 

the Morgue and the Chanties Department was far below 
our needs, so the stocks of coffin manufacturers in the 
city were practically bought out." 

Besides the pine boxes of the Morgue were others 
of stained wood, cloth covered or zinc lined, indicative 
of how the emergency had been met. 

Inspector McLaughlin and Captain Shire had charge 
of the police arrangements. A line of policemen kept 
back the hosts of morbid spectators at First avenue. 
Others guarded the doors of the Morgue and the pier. 
At least eight}' policemen were on hand during the 
earlier part of the day. The crowds became larger and more 
demonstrative late in the afternoon. 

WHOLE FAMILIES WIPED OUT. 

According to Mr. Richard, one reason why the prog- 
ress of the work of identification was so slow on Wed- 
nesda}' night and early next morning, was that entire 
families had been wiped out and nobod}- was left to 
identify them. Friends and relatives appeared on the 
scene later, made known the identit}' of the dead, and 
scores of undertaker.s' wagons bore the bodies away. 

Bodies in a line four deep covered the floor of the 
pier. Ten policemen with pencils and writing pads 
took down the names of the identified and identifiers and 
the records were kept by Coroner's clerks and also at 
a temporary office improvised in the old waiting room on 
the pier. There Coroner Scholeer issued permits for the 
removal of bodies. 

Mayor McClellan, accompanied by Assistant Cor- 
poration Counsel Breckenridge, visited the pier shortly 
after noon. Removing his hat, the Ma3'or walked the 
length of the pier between the lines of bodies. 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 71 

A woman, who had identified the body of a child, 
fell in a faint nearly at his feet, and further on four men, 
carrying a coffin, scraped his shoulder with their burden. 
Before leaving the Mayor inspected all the arrangements 
made for the disposition of the bodies. 

Four bodies arrived at the pier on the Charties 
Department steamer *' Fidelity" during the morning. 
The " Massasoit," with thirty-nine more dead, reached 
the pier shortly before three o'clock in the afternoon. 
It was then that the visitors were all ordered off by the 
police, so that the work of unloading bodies could pro- 
ceed rapidly. 

MOB BROKE THROUGH LINES. 

There was along wait, during which the grief-stricken 
men and women became uncontrollable. A mob, held up 
at the First avenue corner, broke through the lines and 
was subdued with difficulty. A second one, impatient at 
being held up at the pier doors, pushed them aside and 
swept the police guards down the narrow passageway at 
the entrance. 

A panic seemed impending for a moment. Two aged 
women were thrown and trampled upon and their screams 
caused other women to become hysterical. The policemen 
promptly controlled the situation. 

After the bodies had been unloaded from the " Mas- 
sasoit " deck hands trundled out two big wicker go- 
carts filled to the brim with children's straw hats, decked 
with red, blue and vari-colored ribbons. 

They followed with two barrels filled with sunshades 
and umbrellas and three or four barrels of clothing. At 
the last came two barrels filled with women's handbags, 



72 SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 

purses and pocketbooks, filled with mone}'^ and valuables. 
These were taken in charge by the police. 

Many offers of assistance in buryingthe unidentified 
dead were made to Commissioner of Charities Tull}-. 
One undertaker offered to bury all the bodies remaining 
unidentified. Two well-dressed women, who said the\' 
were Mrs. Chandler and Miss Mason, called on Commis- 
sioner TuUy to offer to pay for all the mourning, needy 
persons who had lost relatives in the accident, wanted. 
They also offered to furnish clothing, food and other pro- 
visions for those needing them, and they said they would 
like to look after destitute families in instances in which 
the breadwinner of such family had met death in the dis- 
aster, 

FEW ENTERED AT A TIME. 

The crowd around the Morgue and the Department 
of Charities pier in East Twenty-sixth street in the even- 
ing was much greater. By 8 o'clock the line of people 
waiting to be allowed to enter and look upon the rows of 
bodies ranged within extended for many blocks. About 
200 were allowed to enter at a time, and as they thinned 
out, some with their fears turned to terrible certainty as 
they had come face to face with the cold forms of their 
loved ones, and others, roused to faint hopes by their 
failure to find what they dreaded, they were gentl}' shown 
out into the street and another party admitted to undergo 
the heartrending ordeal. 

At one time at least 1 500 people were in the long line 
awaiting admittance, besides the hundreds of morbidly 
curious persons who lined the adjacent streets. 

Despite the many curious ones, the crowd was rever- 
ent. Often, as the groups standing in Twenty-sixth 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 73 

Street stood and talked in low tones of the catastrophe, 
from the interior of the pier shed would come a despair- 
ing cry, which told that another one in the silent rows of 
bodies had been identified. 

"Another one," the crowd would murmur, and there 
would be speculations among the subdued groups as to 
whether it was father or mother or daughter or son. 

The body of a girl of 8 years, which was declared by 
neighbors to be that of the little daughter of Henry 
Heintz, of Front street, was washed up against the side 
of a pier at the foot of Clinton street, in the East river, 
hardly a block away from the girl's home. The tide by 
a strange vagary had carried the little body from the 
scene of the calamity of North Brother Island down 
through the narrow channels of the river to this point so 
near her home. The girl's mother, Mrs. Annie Heintz, 
was among the dead. 

KISSED THE COLD LIPS. 

Jacob Michael identified the body of his daughter 
Carrie, 12 years old, late in the afternoon. He was slowly 
walking along the line of cof&ns, when he suddenly 
halted, and with a moan, fell to his knees in several 
inches of water, and reaching into a coffin, raised the 
head of a child and began to kiss the cold lips 
fervently. 

Earlier in the day the man had been to the Morgue 
and identified the charred body of his married daughter, 
Mrs. Catherine Cohrs, and that of his year-old grandson. 
The bodies of his daughter and grandson had been burned 
almost beyond recognition, but Michael did not seem to 
be as much affected by that awful sight as he was when 
he saw little Carrie's body in the coffin. He had to be 



74 SYMPATHY KF^OM AI.L nUARTERS. 

dragged from the coffin by the police and was forced to 

leave the pier. 

The body of Lena Ackerman, i6 months old, was 
identified by her father. Ur. Ackerman was walking out 
on the pier, when he saw some photographers slant a 
coffin against the side of the pier and attempt to take a 
picture of two bodies therein. He recognized the features 
of his baby and, rushing forward, tore the body from the 
coffin. It was some time before the police could persuade 
him to give it up. 

HOSE BROKE IN MANY PLACES. 
Assistant District Attorney Garvin examined Ed- 
ward Flanagan, first mate of the '' General Slocum." 
Flanagan declared that while he was playing water on 
the fire his hose broke in many places, making it useless. 
He then made his way to the upper deck, and tried to 
restore order among the women and children, who were 
lumping overboard. The mate remained at this post, he 
declared, until the boat grounded. Then his clothes were 
blazing, so that he jumped into the water to extinguish 
the flames. He spent two hours in the work of rescue, 
until he collapsed, and was taken to the hospital. 

Mr. Garvin received word that Chief Engineer 
George Conklin, of the "General Slocum," was alive, 
and immediately took steps to find him. 

Mate Flanagan told a straightforward story of the 
disaster to Mr. Garvin. He was standing on the main 
deck, he said, talking to a deck hand when he was 
told of the fire. He hurried to Engineer Conklin with 
the news, and then went to Captain Van Schaick. He 
ordered full speed ahead and made for North Brother 
Island, blowing his whistle for assistance. Flanagan ran 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 75 

back to the scene of the fire and attempted to extinguish 
the flames, which in the meantime had reached serious 
proportions. 

Failing to accomplish anything with the hose, the 
mate rushed to the upper deck and tried to quiet the 
panic-stricken women and children who were leaping 
overboard. He stayed on the upper deck until the boat 
went aground. When he leaped to save himself he found 
two women and a baby in the water, and they cried to 
him for help. He could not keep the three afloat, and 
they were lost. 

After the women and baby disappeared, Flanagan 
said he next saw Michael Graham, the steward, who was 
trying to save the ship's money. It was mostly in silver, 
amounting to more than $1000, and was in a bag. Graham 
found the weight pulling him under and let go of it. 

INSPECTORS TRY TO ESCAPE. 

In a statement issued over the signatures of Captain 
R. A. Sargent and Christopher Vert, United States 
Inspectors of Steam Vessels at the port of Philadelphia, 
the New York inspectors were exonerated from all blame 
in connection with the accident to the " General Slocum." 
They said : 

"From accounts of the accident, we cannot see that it 
can in any way be attributed to the steam vessels inspect- 
ors in New York, this particular vessel having been 
inspected last May. What we have read in regard to the 
life preservers being so badly decayed and of such faulty 
construction that they are useless, we cannot look upon 
as correct, and think that these preservers must have been 
damaged by fire, as it is the custom of inspectors at this 
port, and at New York also, we believe, to carefully exam- 



76 SYMPATHY FROM ALL nUARTERS. 

inc all life preservers at each annual inspection and to see 
that they are of approved t^-pe and are located in accessi- 
ble places. This vessel was, no doubt, equipped on either 
side of each deck carr3'ing passengers, with hoses ofsucli 
length as to reach all parts of the deck connected to the 
steam fire pump main ; also with two efficient hand fire 
pumps with hose attachments, also leading to different 
parts of the deck. It is evident from accounts that not 
only the captain, mates, pilots, and engineers, but also 
the unlicensed members of the crew, heroically remained 
at their post and did all in their power to avert this fear- 
ful catastrophe." 

Secretary Cortelyou ordered a rigid investigation of 
the " General Slocuni " disaster, under the direction of 
the Steamboat Inspection Service. 

CORTELYOU'S CIRCULAR LETTER. 

Realizing the importance of having exercised the 
greatest care in the management of steamboats, especially 
excursion boats, Secretary Cortelyou, on May 23, of this 
year, issued a circular letter to the inspectors of steam 
vessels, warning them to guard against just such a dis- 
aster as that which occurred at New York. 

Supervising Inspector General Uhler received from 
Robert S. Rodie, Inspector of the Second District, at New 
York, a preliminary report of the accident. Inspector 
Rodie, as soon as he learned of the fire, went to the scene 
in the wrecking boat " Chapman." In his report to Gen- 
eral Uhler he sa3\s : 

" While viewing the wreck I noticed some clothes 
near the fonvard side of the paddle box and called Cap- 
tain Turner's attention to it. It proved to be the body of 
a woman, and on close inspection it was found that three 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 77 

other bodies were inside the paddle box, all of which 
proved to be women. 

"At the time we first went alongside the wreck there 
was no one in the immediate vicinity except a small boat 
with a man in it some distance off. A short time after 
we noticed that a police boat was approaching the wreck. 
We tnrned over to them the work of taking the bodies 
out, which they did. We provided them with axe.^, and 
they cut away part of the open woodwork in order to re- 
move bodies." 

PROCLAMATION BY THE MAYOR. 

Mayor McClellan issued this proclamation : 

To the Citizens of New York : 

The appalling disaster, by which more than 500 
men, women and children lost their lives by fire and 
drowning, has shocked and horrified our city. Knowing 
the keen sympathy of the people of the city of New York 
with their stricken fellows, I have appointed a committee 
of citizens to receive contributions to a fund to provide 
for the fit and proper burial of the dead, and for such 
other relief as may be necessary. 

The following gentlemen have been asked to serve 
on the committee : Morris K. Jesup, Jacob Schiff, Her- 
man Ridder, Charles A. Dickey, Robert A. Van Court- 
landt, Erskine Hewitt, Joseph C. Hendrix, Thomas 
Mulry, George Bhret, John Fox, John Weimacht and 
H. B. Scharman. 

Until the committee has had opportunity to organize, 
I shall be glad to receive contributions at the Mayor's 
Office. 

As a sign of mourning, I have ordered the flags of 
the City Hall to be put at half-mast. 



78 SYMI'ATIIV TROM ALL (>UARTI:RS. 

That the fire hose ou the '' General Slociim " was so 
rotten that it burst in several places as soon as the water 
began to flow through it, permitting more to spurt through 
the holes than came out of the nozzle, was the statement 
made by Edward Flanagan, the first mate of the vessel. 
He made this assertion calmly and deliberately, fully 
appreciating its significance. 

" I was amidships," said Flanagan, " when a deck- 
hand ran up to me and told me the vessel was afire. I 
did not wait to investigate, but ran up to the captain and 
told him about it, first stopping to tell the engineer. 
When the captain heard me he ordered full steam ahead 
and made for North Brother Island blowing his whistle 
all the time. Then I ran down to the main deck to take 
the fire apparatus, and some of the deck hands and I be- 
gan to get out the hose. We got out three lines in all. 

SCARCITY OF ^A^ATER. 

" But as soon as the water was turned on I was sur- 
prised to see each line burst at different places and it 
was impossible to get enough water from the nozzles to 
be of the slightest use in quenching the flames. It 
seemed that the hose was new, and what put it in that 
condition I am at a loss to explain. 

"Abandoning this work I ran to the stern where the 
women and children were, and shouted to them to keep 
calm and not to be afraid. But it seemed to me that 
most of them were Germans who did not under- 
stand English — whether it was this or that the}' were so 
frightened that they did not hear me — but they paid not 
the slightest attention to me. I do not know how the fire 
started and I don't believe any one does, but it is my 
opinion that it started in the lamp room." 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 79 

His voice trembling and his eyes filled with terror 
at the remembrance of the scene on the '' Slocum " George 
Heintz, seventeen years old, told how deck hands had de- 
serted the passengers and left them to the mercy of the 
flames. 

He spoke in high terms of the captain, who, he said> 
had called upon him to quiet the fears of the women and 
children. Stepping upon a rail of the boat, the boy talked 
to the panic stricken excursionists until he was forced 
iuto the water by the rush which they made for safety. 

"I was standing on the upper deck near the pilot house 
when the fire started," said Heintz. " With me were my 
mother and my two sisters, Louisa and Diana. I told 
them to stay by my side when the fire came toward us. 
My brother Henry was there, too, but he and my mother 
and sisters were lost when the crowd began to rush to- 
ward the sides. Henry was saved, the rest are missing. 

RAN FROM THE FLAMES. 

*' When the flames leaped toward us the deck hands 
jumped into the water. Only one remained and he made 
a feeble attempt to put out the fire with water. I stood on 
the rail entreating the crowd to allow the women and 
children a chance for safety, but when the flames began to 
play about the dresses of the women and the smoke be- 
came thick they ran away. 

''I stopped talking long enough to look around for 
my brother, mother and sisters. I could not find them, 
but a short distance away I saw the figure of a little girl 
kneeling in prayer. I started toward her, but before I had 
gone two steps she was enveloped in flames and I was 
swept over the side by frightened passengers. 

"My head seemed to strike in a mud bank after I 



go SYMl'ATllY FKl^M ALL QUARTERS. 

went uudcr the surface of the water and, struggUng to 
look about, I saw the figures of half a do/.eu clnldrcn, boys 
and girls, iu the weeds and mud. Some way, I don't know 
how, I got to the surface of the water and was picked up 

''' ' olfe'of those wd,o escaped from the '■Slocum" was 
Louise GaiUug, the fifteen-year-old daughter of Christo- 
pher Gailiug, a laborer, who resides m Nutley, N.J. The 
girl jumped from the burning steamer with thetwo-year- 
oU child ,)f a Hoboken fauiily, by whom she was em 

^^°^M the home of the Gailiugs the mother ^^id f « ^^^^ 
heard nothing from her daughter and knew little about 
:Z disaster. The girl would easily pass for seventeen 
years of age, and is an excellent swimmer 

PUPILS DEEPLY MOVED. 
Soon after roll call in the various schools throughout 
the city, and especially in those adjacent to or in the dis- 
trict principally affected by the disaster, there were signs 
that the pupils were deeply moved by the great loss of 

life 

■ Superintendent Maxwell sent out a circular to pmi- 

cipals ill schools, in which he expressed the sympathy 
It by all public school children and teachers and in- 
structed that flags be displayed at half-mast on all public 
school buildings throughout the city. 

Dr Maxwell pointed out the lessons of the disaster 
urging 'teachers to admonish their pupils to remain cool 
and efllected in the presence of sudden danger, to learn to 
"inandalwaystobereadytolendahelpinghaudto those 

weaker than themselves. 

A heavy pall of sorrow hung over Public School No. 




CORONER O'GORMAN WHO CONDUCTED A RIGID INVESTIGATION 
AS TO THE CAUSE OF SUCH GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. 




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SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 81 

2 5, in Fifth street, near First avenue. Of the 2,000 
pupils a large portion were relatives of the excursionists, 
and between two hundred and fifty and three hundred of 
the regular attendants did not appear in their classes. 
Of this number the principal, Mr. Robbins, said one 
hundred and ten had obtained permission on Tuesday to 
be absent Wednesday. 

Scores of boys and girls appeared in their class 
rooms, their e3'^es red with weeping, and asked to be ex- 
cused because a brother, sister or relative had been lost. 
The school flag hung at half-mast. 

COMMENTS BY THE PRESS. 

Commenting on the great calamity, one of our 
prominent journals said editorially : 

"After every great disaster there is a general dis- 
position to hold somebody responsible. It is always as- 
sumed that the blame can be and must be exactly fixed, 
and that justice requires some individual expiation. Cer- 
tainly is is well to hold all persons engaged in the 
transportation of passengers to a strict accountability, but 
the 'lesson' which seems most forcibly conveyed by the 
Hast River horror is one of man's helplessness against 
the elements, the utter futility of all ordinary human 
devices under extraordinary conditions. 

" The ' General Slocum ' was a large and capacious 
steamboat, and, as it had been not more than twelve years 
in service, it could not be considered old. Of course it 
was combustible, but so are nearly all steamboats. Fire- 
proof construction has been found sufficiently difficult on 
land; completely fireproof steamboats, if not impossible, 
are at least not yet in common use. 

*' There are few boats, upon any American river, that 

N.Y. a 



g2 SYMPATHY FROM M.I. OUARIEKS. 

,night not burn as rapidly as did the 'General Slocum' if a 
fire started in the bow ^vlrile tire boat was steammg aga 
a high wind. It is likely that, a l.ttle earlier or a Ittk 
IJ, this fire .uight have been extingttrshed, or the boat 
.It have run ashore with safety ; occurring just when 

t did ' n the conditions were combined for a horrible 
cat iroph , and it is not evident that the 'General 

stcmn' was more liable to this than auy similar ex- 

"^^^Mt'mav be said, of course, that a fire could not 
occur upon a'steamboat without gross -relessness Jhat 
is true of fires generally, even m a dwell ug house. 
W do not certainly know, in this case, how the fire orig- 
inated We do kuow that, in the present stage of human 
levelopmcnt, there is no certain precaution against 
ciden't, ank the only way to be ab.solutely assumed 
against fire on a steamboat is not to go upon the boat. 
BOATS MADE OF STEEL. 
"It is wiser not to look upon the 'General Slocum' 
as an exceptional 'death trap,' because if there are any 
practical lessons to be drawn from this experience they 
must be of general application. A form of steel con- 
Z tioti has' lately been introduced for nve-teamers 
that will make them less easily combustible, but the 
builders of this boat are not to be blamed above al otlie 
because they followed the f -rms in common use No, 
cHhe ..r'the officers of the boat be blamed for he 
inevitable panic which increased the loss of life, and 
added untold horror to the tragedy. 

"How conld panic have been prevented or allayed 
nndersuch terrifying conditions? That is one of ti. perils 
inseparable from a large crowd, especially of « omen and 



SYMPATHY FROM ALL QUARTERS. 83 

children, and the best drilled crew must have been help- 
less in this case to stay it. 

" One count in the indictment against the ' General 
Slocum' deserves particular consideration. It is said 
that the life-preservers were old and unserviceable. That 
is probably true of the life-preservers on many steamers, 
which naturally deteriorate with age and exposure. Yet 
as a matter of fact, how many passengers on any steam- 
boat would know how to reach a life-preserver or to put 
it on under the excitement of imminent peril ? 

"Ofi&cial inspection can and should assure a suffi- 
cient number of these appliances in good condition, but 
unless each passenger were fitted with a life-preserver on 
going aboard the proportion of lives preserved by them 
is likely to be small. In a crowd of terrified children 
any such reliance must be futile. 

" For the remainder of this season steamboat excur- 
sions will be unpopular, though the immediate effect of 
this disaster will be to enforce greater care and vigilance 
than have been known before. As this effect wears off 
and the vigilance relaxes, the dread will also wear away 
and everything will go on as before— until the next time. 
Really, when we consider the extent of the traffic and 
the many sources of danger, great river disasters have 
not been numerous in this country, and we may reason- 
ably regard that of Wednesday last as exceptional. We 
shall profit more by it if, instead of trying to find some 
one on whom to wreak vengeance, we turn attention to 
possible improvements in steamboat construction and 
management, while frankly acknowledging that there 
are forces in nature against which all the pride of science 
is powerless and catastrophes that teach man only his 
own littleness." 



CHAPTER V. 
STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 
r\N the third day after the disaster it was .stated that, of 
O the 559 bodies recovered from the "General Slocu.u 
disaster sia had been identified. There were st.U 46a 
"nVnLceounted for, so th at the final death h^^^ 
probably be almost a thousand. Of the forty -seven 
CL not vet identified, thirty-one were nnrecogn.zable, 
a^^A their names will never be known. 

P iminary to the inquest to be held. Coroner Berry 
summoned before him witnesses who were expected to 
S at the formal inquiry. ^-P-tor Lundberg, on 
of the Government inspectors who certified to the ade 
qulc- and efficiency of the life saving -d other equ.p- 
?nent of the " General Slocum," appeared before the 
Co oner accompanied by a lawyer, and refused to testify, 
S L Ws reason for this action that h,s testimony 

inieht tend to incriminate him. ■ ( fh^ 

It was asserted by a deckhand that warning of the 

fire was given while the vessel was abreast of the north- 

tneiid of Blackweirs Island. This places the first 

warning much earlier than had P-^-^y '^-'^f'f ' ' 
As a token of the city's mounung for the dead of St 
Mark's parish the sugge.stion was made that church bells 
a lover Uie city be tolled between the hours of two and 
tiree o'clock on Monday. This suggestion met the ap- 
■nrnval of nianv cluirclies. , 

'investigation of the disaster was fast taking shape. 
Urged by President Roosevelt's order to make the inquiry 



84 



SIARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 85 

thorougli, Secretary Cortelyon spent the morning outlin- 
ing the mode of procedure. 

Coroner O'Gorman, conducting an investigation at 
North Brother Island, declared that what he had discov- 
ered convinced him that the crew of the excursion steamer 
had made no attempt to save the passengers, and were 
guilty of cowardice. 

Sections of standpipes and hose brought from the 
wreck by divers showed that no effort had been made to 
fight the fire from the side furthest from the flames, and 
that not all of the apparatus had been used. 

From St. Mark's parish the first funerals of the vic- 
tims were held. Twenty-five were buried in one cemetery, 
in many instances several members of the same family 
being laid at rest in a common grave. The work of 
burying the dead went forward and arrangements were 
made for more than one hundred funerals from the 
stricken district. 

GRIEF IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 

From ten public schools in the vicinity came the 
record of eighty-three dead, sixty-six missing, thirty 
injured and sixty-eight saved. In these public schools, 
which include all in two districts, no graduation exercises 
were held, the children receiving their diplomas without 
ceremony. 

With " vSlocum " victims being buried by the hun- 
dreds and with charity being dispensed with free hand, 
the municipality of New York bent its utmost energies 
to investigating the causes which led up to the frightful 
disaster by which nearly one thousand human beings 
perished, with a view to punishing those responsible. 

Coroner Berry began an unofficial investigation, 



86 



STARTLING TESTIMONV OK EYE WITNESSES. 



Which resulled in unearthing a few .,f the primary causes 
of the disaster. They arc these : . , . . , 

There were two barrels of dry hay, m whicn glasses 
bad been packed, in the lamproom, where the fire is said 
to have originated-probably by some one smoking. 

A staiidpipe, with a piece of burnt liose attached, 
brought to the surface by a diver, showed that the valve 
bad not been turned and that the pipe had not been used. 

The fire was discovered at Eighty-sixth street, oppo- 
site Blackwell's Island, fully two and one-half miles below 

North Brother Island. 

The crew made no effort to launch the lifeboats, be- 
cause the boats were surrounded by a maddened, freir/.ied 
mob, which would have required a hundred men to drive 

'''"^ The boat was newly painted and burned like tinder. 
DOOMED TO HORRIBLE DEATH. 
From the moment the unlawful smoker dropped the 
spark into the barrels of hay illegally placedin the lamp- 
room, the victims were foredoomed to horrible deadu 
The Man with the Scythe went at the helm and had 
male careful preparations for his harvest. The fire ho.se 
was rotten, and burst the moment the pumps^began to 
work- the life preservers were filled with powdered cork 
Ind ^onld not'sustaiu their own weight in the water 
much less that of a human being ; the lifeboats and rafts 
were fastened to the decks with wire cable- it seems 
almost like a prearranged scheme at wdiolesale murder^ 
The witnesses called by Coroner Berry were Mate 
Edward Flanagan, Walter Payne, a colored porter ; John 
). Coakley, Elbert Gassga, an oiler ; George Owen, a 
steward, and Martin Ouyer, a deckhand. 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 87 

The Coroner examined the witnesses separately, and, 
as they emerged from the examination room, they dis- 
cussed the matter freely. 

'' Before we left the pier at Third street," said Coak- 
ley, "a couple of barrels of glasses were brought aboard 
and stood alongside the bar. These glasses were packed 
in what I took to be salt meadow hay, that fine stuflF you 
always see glassware packed in. In a little while these 
barrels were put in the forward cabin, or the lamproom, 
which is between decks. The barrels were put there be- 
cause it was feared that the children might pull out the 
hay and scatter it around the boat. 

THE FIRST ALARM. 

" I was on the hurricane deck, having gone there 
with a policeman to quiet some children. I went below. 
When I left the hurricane deck Blackwell's Island light 
was abreast. The bartender asked me to have a drink. 
As I finished drinking a boy came and told me he thought 
he saw smoke in the forward cabin. 

" I ran aft — the cabin is aft of the bar — and into the 
cabin, where I encountered a heavy smoke, such as comes 
from burning hay. The fire at that time amounted to 
very little. It was dark in there, and I could not see 
much, but I thought I could put out the fire with little 
difficulty. There were two bags of charcoal outside, and 
I seized one of these and dropped it on the fire. That did 
no good, so I ran out and notified the mate. I got the 
hose and tried to get it rolled out and working with the 
assistance of Gassga. 

" We had 200 feet of hose, and only forty feet to 
stretch it in. The hose was new, having been put on 
the boat this season. 



88 STARTLING TESTIMONY OK EYE WITNESSES. 

"As «e pulled the hose off the reel the flames in- 
creased and broke out, and the passengers became pamc- 
s ncken We tried to straighten the hose, wh.eh kmked 
i and we tried to pull the kinks out. Just then the 

"^'"■TreXtrced itself through several lengths of 
Bose, and .hen it came against one of the kinks the ho.sc 
burst. It could not stand the pressure. 

The other members of the erew who were presen 
corroborated the statement made by Coakley. Mate 
Flanagan said : 

STATEMENT BY MATE. 
" I was standing in the an.idships gangway Nvhen 
Coaklev eame up and told me there was a fire m the for- 
fvird cabin. I ordered the crew to get to work with the 
Lse A -e tried to unreel the hose the passengers 
Lterfered with us greatly. The hose had several kmks 



in it. 



"We tried to get these kinks out but were unable to 
do so up to the time the water was started. When 
water was started a coupling came loo.se. 
" What did you do then ? " was asked. 
"Se couldn't do anything. After that everyth.ng 

^,„t to . The assistant^ engineer and I were the last 

to leave the boat at our end." 

■Second Mate Corcoran said : 

^A J^ght I saw on that boat I will remember a long 

lime fgu^ss. I saw a woman give birth to a child and 

hen Jimp Ycrboard with the babe. They both died. I 

coiad not get to her, the crowd was so great, and she had 

no helo at all— people were crazy. 

'•The fire was all aroun.l her, and she picked up her 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 89 

babe in her arms, wrapped a piece of ber clothing abont 
it, and, sick and frightened as she was, looked about for 
a way to escape. There was none. It took only a mo- 
ment for her to realize this. Then she climbed on the 
railing and leaped out into the water." 

It was stated by divers who went down into the 
wreck at dawn that there were many bodies still under the 
entanglement of timbers and paddle wheels, and that it 
would be necessary to dynamite the hulk or raise it before 
they could be reached. To this end city officials com- 
municated with a wrecking company, and an announce- 
ment was made that the company would undertake the 
work of bringing the wreck to the surface. 

STORY OF CHIEF ENGINEER. 

Chief Engineer B. F. Conklin, of the "General Slo- 
ciim," who was wanted by Coroner Berry, of The Bronx, 
to tell the story of the disaster, arrived at his home in 
Catskill. He was ill from the eftects of the terrible ex- 
perience through which he passed. Speaking about it, 
he said : 

" I would like to forget that fearful thing if I could 
and thus far have made no statement about it. The 
boat was comfortably filled, though not packed, •as we 
were licensed to carry 2500 and there were about 1600 
aboard. About 10.30 o'clock, when we were opposite 
138th Street, the first mate approached me as I was 
standing in the engine room talking to my assistant, 
Everett Brandow. 

" He said that a fire had been discovered forward, 
and I at once ordered him to lay the hose while I went 
to the pumps, first notifying the captain, who was in the 
pilot house. 



90 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF IIYK WITNESSES. 



" lu less than a ininulc water was beiug poured ou 
the flames, but it diA not seeui to check them m the 
least. Two minutes or so later the fire alarm sounded 
and some one on deck cried ' Fire '/ 

- Instantly there was a roar as the terrified passen- 
gers arose like one person and made a rush forthestern 
There was no checking that frenzied crowd. Mingled 
with the smell of buruing paint and wood was the sick- 
ening odor of burning flesh. The women aud children 
rushed about as though bereft of their senses. I saw 
several children with their clothing on fire and their 
mothers vainly trying to put out the flames with their 

hands. . j ^.t • c 

"The boat had been newly painted, aud this, ot 

course, made it buru more readily. 

PREVENTED BY CROWD. 

" We had eight lifeboats aud two rafts aboard, but it 

was an utter impossibility to get uear them, for the 

crowd was so dense about them that it would have taken 

a hundred men to push the frenzied persons aside and 

launch the boats." 

A pathetic story was contained in the report made 

to the St. Mark's Church Information Bureau by 

Miss Helen Goldstrum, a teacher in a public school m 

the heart of the stricken district. IMiss Goldstrum gave 

instructions to a class of twenty little girls and six boys. 

A^er the accident she made a canvass of their 

homes and found that nearly twenty members of her 

class were dead or missing with no hope of any beuig 

found alive. The bodies of twelve of the little girls 

^ave been recovered. Five of the six boys were saved. 

Secretary of Commerce and Labor George B. Cor- 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 91 

telyoii, who had a long conference with Robert S. Rodie, 
inspector of the Second District of New York, said that 
he would give his personal attention to the Federal 
investigation of the " Slocum " disaster. 

" As Secretary of the Department of Commerce 
and Labor I am the head of the Federal inquiry into 
this affair, and I propose to give it my personal and in 
so far as possible my undivided attention until the mat- 
ter is finally settled. As soon as practical the Board of 
Inspectors will get together and take testimony. 

NO ONE WOULD BE SHIELDED. 

"I want to correct an impression that seems to have 
gone abroad that this investigation will be left to subor- 
dinates in the department. I will hold the inquiry my- 
self." 

Mr. Cortelyou said that if it was found to be true 
that employees of the Government had been criminally 
negligent in their inspection of boilers in New York 
harbor the public could rest assured that no one would be 
shielded, but that the blame would be placed where it 
properly belonged. 

It developed that a new horror had been added to 
the terrible condition resulting from the " Slocum " 
disaster through the over-officiousness of some person at 
the Morgue. 

When the bodies were taken by hundreds from the 
water and laid in rows on the grass at North Brother 
Island each w^as tagged with a number. That number 
was carefully recorded and the papers, valuables and 
trinkets which would have served to identify positively 
the bodies were removed and placed in separate packages, 
each package bearing a number corresponding to the 



02 STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 

number on the body from which the articles were 
taken. 

These packages then were placed in the custody of 
the Coroner. 

When the bodies were taken to the Morgue they 
were placed in numbered boxes, but in many cases these 
numbers did not correspond with the figures the bodies 
previously had borne. As a result, the plans were com- 
pletely upset, and the numbered packages of valuables 
became practically worthless as a means of identification. 

The life preservers marked "Edwin Forrest" found 
on some of the victims of the "Slocuni" disaster, were 
part of a lot that were bought and shipped from Phila- 
delphia in 1898. 

SAID TO BE IN GOOD CONDITION. 

How old some of them were at that time or what care 
was taken of them afterwards is unknown, but it is 
claimed that all were in fair condition when the}- left 
Philadelphia. 

Frederick Craemer bought the old " Forrest " from 
the Upper Delaware River Navigation Company, in 1898, 
and broke her up at Rickenback's Shipyard at Cramer 
Hill, N. J. Mr. Craemer said : 

"I took the life preservers off the "Forrest" and 
while I can't say that I carefully inspected each one, I 
know that they were in good condition. Some were ap- 
parentU' nearl}' new, but I have no means of knowing- 
how old the others were. They were of the ground-cork- 
filled type, which, of course, are useless as soon as the 
canvas covering gives wa3^ 

"I shipped in all nearly 3000 life preservers to New 
York about that time, selling them to several different 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 93 

parties, and doubtless some of these were the ones found 
on the ill-fated "Slocum." 

Many illustrations were supplied during the "Slo- 
cum" disaster of the crazy actions which panic-stricken 
people will perform, but that of the purser of the boat, 
Michael Graham, which cost him his life, is the most re- 
markable of all. 

The story was told by Chief Mate Edward Flanagan, 
of the "Slocum," when testifying before District Attorney 
Jerome. He said in part : — 

SUDDENLY WENT TO THE BOTTOM. 

"Purser Graham was a good swimmer, and I had no 
fear for his safety when I saw him leap from the boat 
into the river. To my surprise, instead of striking out 
for the shore, he flung his hands up, and, with terror on 
his face, called wildly for help. Then he went to the 
bottom like a stone. 

"The mystery was solved when I learned that, be- 
fore leaving his office, he crammed his pockets with bills 
and silver, about $1000 in all. The heavy coin had 
carrried him to his death in an instant." 

Steamboatmen discussing the question of saving life 
in case of an accident such as befell the "General Slo- 
cum," were largely of the opinion that the provisions 
made were inadequate. All the boats plying on the 
harbor, river and bay have been inspected and given 
certificates of safety. 

The law regarding the life-saving appliances calls 
for a proper number of small boats, to be kept in good 
condition, and for life-preservers sufficient to equip every 
soul aboard. This latter rule is always complied with, 
so far as the numbers go, but it was admitted at the 



94 STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYK WITNESSES. 

office of the inspectors that no bouyancy tests are 

applied. 

Inspections are made once a year, but may be made 
oftener at the request of vessel owners. It was believed 
that many of the owners would seek the services of the 
inspectors again and ask for a thorough test. 

It was pointed out by shipping men that excursion 
steamboats carry small crews in comparison to the num- 
ber of passengers, and that while a fire drill is practiced 
on most of them to some extent, boat drills are not. 
Some vessels do not have their boats lowered away once 
in a season and fouled tackle, the mariners say, is a 
natural consequence. 

REFUSED TO ANSWER QUESTIONS, 
Henry Lundberg, United States Steamboat Inspec- 
tor refused to answer questions put to him about the last 
inspection of the " General Slocum," taking the stand 
that any reply that he made might tend to mcrimmate 
him. Coroner Joseph T. Berry had summoned many 
witnesses to his headquarters, at the corner of Third and 
Tremont avenues, to obtain their informal statements 
before examining them at the inquest, to aid him m his 
investigation. 

Inspector Lundberg went to the Coroner's office m 
obedience to a summons. He was accompanied by a 
lawyer. He entered the Coroner's private room and 
answered some questions put to him concerning his 

official duties. ^^ . 

"When did you last inspect the "Slocum? in- 
quired Coroner Berry. 

"I respectfully decline to answer that question by 
advice of counsel," returned the inspector. 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 95 

' On what ground ? " pursued the Coroner, who was 
surprised by this attitude of a United States official. 

"On the ground that an answer might tend to 
incriminate me," said Inspector Lundberg, who was then 
excused. Coroner Berry communicated these facts to the 
District Attorney's office. 

Coroner Berry obtained during the day from mem- 
bers of the '■ Slocum's " crew statements which he deemed 
of vital importance, not only as tending to settle the 
question as to the part of the steamer in which the fire 
originated, but also as indicating that the flames were 
discovered much earlier than had generally been 
supposed. 

There was some conflict between the witnesses about 
various details, but several points were made clear. One 
of the deckhands had his attention called to the fire and 
tried to smother it before summoning the mate. The 
hose was then attached, but for some reason it did not 
work, and the panic followed. 

CONFLICTING STATEMENTS. 

Although officers of the boat placed the first discov- 
ery of the flames at a time when the " Slocum " was pass- 
ing the sunken meadows, John J. Coakle)^, a deck hand, 
who was admittedly the first to report the fire, swore that 
the "Slocum" had been much further down the river 
and that, consequently, the complete destruction had not 
been effected as rapidly as supposed. 

Coakley was the first one admitted into the private 
examination room, and his testimony was taken by a 
stenographer. He told his story without hesitation, 
attributing the origin of the fire to some person who had 
smoked in the dark storeroom filled with inflammable 



9t; STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 

materials. The iuference drawu by those who heard 
him was that some member of the crew who had tried to 
escape observation while he smoked, was responsible for 

the disaster. 

He had left the upper deck to accept the invitation 
of the bartender to take a drink. On his way down he 
noticed the BlackwelVs Island light and he believed that 
the boat was about opposite Eighty-sixth street. After 
he had poured out his drink and swallowed it, a boy ran 
np to the bar and told him that there was a lot of smoke 
coming from the forward cabin. C. Oakley hurried to 
the place and found a dense smoke, such as might come 
from smouldering hay. Two barrels of glasses had been 
taken on the "Slocum" at the Third street pier and had 
been placed in the cabin used as a general storeroom. 
The glasses were packed in what C. Oakley assumed to 
be salt meadow hay. 

TRYING TO SMOTHER Fi^AMES. 
"The fire didn't seem to amount to much then," 
continued the deck hand. "It was dark, but I thought I 
could put out the fire without much difficulty. There 
were two bags of charcoal outside and I seized one and 
put it over the hay with the idea of smothering the 
flames. This did no good, and so I notified the mate 
and he instructed us to get out the hose. We had about 
two hundred feet of hose and only about forty feet of 
space for stretching it. There were kinks in the hose, 
and while we were trying to straighten them out, the 
flames increased violently and passengers rushed about 
and interfered with us. 

" There were a lot of kinks left when the water was 
turned on ; the water forced its way to one of the kinks 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 97 

and tlieu the liose burst, as tlie pressure was too great. 
Then we could do nothing." 

Coakley admitted that for a time he was as much 
excited as the passengers as the flames continued to 
spread. He ran up on deck, and saw a boy of about 
fifteen climb on the side rail and drop into the water 
near the revolving paddle wheel, which sucked him up. 
Coakley helped to loosen the wire which held the life 
preservers and they fell to the floor. 

GRABBED BABY AND JUMPED. 

As the " Slocum " struck he grabbed a baby and 
jumped overboard. He was almost drowned by a woman 
who seized him, but he managed to shake her oft' and to 
reach land with the baby. He was convinced that the 
captain had not erred in beaching the " Slocum " at 
North Brother Island. Coakley had little rest after the 
disaster, as he was haunted by visions of burning and 
drowning masses whenever he tried to sleep. 

Mate Flanagan's story differed from that of Coaklej'- 
in several respects. He was under the impression that 
the " Slocum " was about opposite Bast Ninety-seventh 
street when he was notified of the fire. While he was 
having the hose prepared for use a coupling became 
loose, and when the water was turned on it escaped at 
this joint. Before the hose could be properly arranged 
the panic had occurred. He said he and an assistant 
engineer were the last to leave the hold. He jumped 
into about ten feet of water and was exhausted when he 
reached shore. The other members of the crew who 
were examined substantially agreed with this version. 

Coroner Berry kept a staff of clerks busy issuing 
subpoenas for the inquest. He wished to obtain the testi- 

N.Y.7 



98 STARTLING TESriM(~)NY OF KYK WITNESSES. 

mony of as mauy adult survivors as possible, and of all 
who were in a position to tlirow any light upon the des- 
truction of the "Geuenil Slocum." He believed that the 
investigation before him should be as thorough as pos- 
sible. 

"Evidence before me so far indicates an appalling 
failure on the part of the crew of the 'General Slocum' 
to assist the helpless passengers during the tragic half 
hour. I have examined eye witnesses of the disaster, 
none of whom remembers to have seen any efforts made 
by the crew, although the witnesses themselves were 
among those to risk life in rescue work. Stand pipes for 
the fire hose, taken from the wreck to-day, show that on 
the side of the boat farthest away from the flames no at- 
tempt was made to use the fire fighting apparatus. Valves 
are found unturned and caps are still in place. There 
is nothing to show that the crew did not look out for 
itself alone. Only one member appears to have perished 
and that one was a steward." 

CREWS CALLED AS WITNESSES. 

In the foregoing words Coroner O'Gorman summed 
up the results of an important part of his daj^'s labor on 
North Brother Island, and around the wreck of the 
"Slocum" off Oak Point, nearly two miles away. The 
Coroner had in fact devoted every minute he could spare 
from the task of attending to the eight bodies recovered 
to the preliminary investigation. 

Early in the day he had called before him the crews 
of the tug boat "Wade" and the "Franklin Edson," the 
island ferr}'. Blistered paint and woodwork on both 
boats showed where they were while the fire raged, and of 
each member of the crew the Coroner asked wiiat work, 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 99 

if any, was done by the crew of the "Slocum." What he 
found was expressed in his utterance to the press. 

Following this he called before him the staff of the 
North Brother Hospital corps, including every one from 
Dr. Stewart to the humblest orderly. Physicians and 
nurses, as well as patients who had risked their lives 
wading and swimming out into the swift tide, were asked 
to tell of their observations. Not one of them could re- 
lieve the impression first produced by the testimony. 

EVIDENCE OF STAND PIPES. 

At the wreck the Coroner had John M. Rice, a diver 
employed by the Department of Docks, busy at work 
collecting the silent evidence of stand pipes, reels, noz- 
zles and the like. Rice had not been working an hour 
on the starboard side of the boat aft of the paddle box 
when he came up with a section of a stand pipe, the cap 
of which had not been removed. 

"It shows that no attempt whatsoever was made to 
attach the hose," was the official comment on this start- 
ling evidence. 

Later in the day Rice brought up another stand 
pipe twelve feet long, to one end of which was a wheel 
valve. Burnt shreds showed that a hose had been at- 
tached to this pipe, but further investigation showed that 
the valve had never been turned. Then too came a reel 
with shreds of unbound hose, and a nozzle which had not 
been removed from its place. 

"That an effort was made to use hose has been told,'' 
said the Coroner, *'but that an effort was made to use ii 
on the safe side of the boat away from the flames has not 
yet been shown. With discipline or practice it would 
appear that the vantage point for the crew would have 



L.ofC. 



KX) STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 

been to the starboard away from fire, but they were never 
there so far as I can see." 

Of the bodies found on the third day only one, so 
far as known, was identified at North Brother Island. 
That was the bod}^ of August Well, fifteen 3'ears old. 
Young Well went to the picnic with his brother Charles, 
two 3''ears j-ounger. Charles escaped, but two months 
before August had broken his leg, which was still incased 
in plaster of paris. The weight dragged him to the bot- 
tom. Of the others found one, a girl eleven years old, 
wore a ring of rubies and pearls on her left hand and a 
turquois ring on her right. Another, a girl of fourteen, 
had a long gold chain around her neck, to which was at- 
tached a locket which had for a monogram "W. A. C." 

MERRIMENT ON A SISTER BOAT. 

With flags fljnng, bands playing and nothing but 
jollity and merriment aboard the steamboat ''Grand Re- 
public'' passed the wreck bearing the thousand 
and more who were attending the outing of the T2oth 
street Methodist Episcopal Church. The "Grand Re- 
public" did not slow down as she approached, as the 
})olice require when divers are at work, and whistles on 
tugs and launches had to be blown vigorously to compel 
the action. Patrick Gilligan, a diver, was under water 
then and the booming of her big paddles brought him to 
the surface in a hurr3^ 

As the steamboat swept by the shores of North 
Brother Island the crowds rushed to the side nearest the 
island to get a good view of the work of rescue going on 
there. According to the police and other witnesses of 
the scene, the excursionists waved handkerchiefs. 

Wl.cii the roll of those who risked life to save pas- 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. JO I 

sengersof the "General Slocum " is made up no names 
will stand higher than those of eleven members of the 
Bronx Yacht Club. In three small launches the eleven 
men in the space of a half hour drew from the water no 
drowning persons. Within six hours afterward they 
had recovered 127 bodies from the tide and from the 
beaches. 

The Bronx Yacht Club is a small organization, with 
headquarters at the foot of Willow avenue, which face the 
Bronx Kills, by which the burning steamboat passed. 
Its members are all rivermen, owners of small launches 
and sailboats. All of them know the treacherous cur- 
rents of Hell Gate and the swirling tide rips that strike 
oflf from the many islands thereabout. They were all 
about the club when the " Slocum " passed, and three 
minutes later were in pursuit. 

MANY BODIES DRAGGED ASHORE. 

H. Burgi, owner of the auxiliary sloop " Hlsie," 
hastily gathered with him Charles Wetzel, steward of 
the club ; Rudolph Zimmerman, Frank Barky and Rob- 
ert Start. They pulled from the water alive, sixty-two 
men, women and children, and landed them on North 
Brother Island. Later they found thirty-two of the dead. 

Policeman Andrew Woods, of the Alexander avenue 
station, was on strike duty near 138th street. Running 
with all his might he soon had with him Peter Jansen 
and John Ran in the launch "Peter." Twenty-three 
living persons were pulled from the water by the three 
men and later thirty-eight dead were found. 

In the launch "Surprise" went Reuben Tudor and 
Granville Gibbons. They found three women alive float- 
ing in the current. Policeman Herbert C Farrell, of the 



102 STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 

Alexander avenue station, was at a fire, but he liastil}'' 
collected some men, strangers to him, and they seized the 
small boat of the tug *' Ji. A. Bayliss." Twenty-two liv- 
ing persons were saved by them and sixteen dead were 
picked up. 

The Chief Engineer said : 

"I saw several children with their clothing on fire 
and their mothers vainly trying to put out the flames 
with their hands. I never saw fire spread with such 
rapidit}', and in less time than it has taken forme to tell 
you this the whole front part of the vessel was in flames. 

TRAMPLED TO DEATH. 

" Those Avho were on the lower deck rushed aft and 
many children were knocked down and trampled to death. 
I can yet hear those agonizing and piercing screams and 
feel the scorching flames. 

" I realized that our only safety was to beach the 
boat, and I knew that North Brother Island was the onl}^ 
place to do it. Wc could not turn back and beach on the 
meadows, for we were above them, and I was fearful that 
we might strike a rock in Hell Gate. 

" Had this happened the loss of life would have been 
greater, for no one, not excepting a good swimmer, could 
have kept afloat in that swift water. 

" It all happened so suddenh', and the fire spread 
with sucli rapidity, that in less than fifteen minutes after 
it was discovered the boat was in flames from stem to 
stern. 

" When tlie boat was beached and I left the engine 
room the}' were still working. 

"Just before the "Slocum" was beached the engine 
room was in flames, and the large mirrors in it fell with a 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 103 

crash. I looked for Brandow, and lie was still standing 
near tlie throttle, with the flames all about him. The 
heat was intense, but I did not seem to feel it much. 

" When the boat grounded there was a terrible crash 
as the upper deck gave way, and for a moment I felt sick, 
for I knew that many people were caught beneath it. 
Brandow stopped his engine, and we made our way with 
difficulty aft. 

" Here there were a number of women and children, 
who beseeched us piteously to save them. I did my best 
to calm them, and told them they must jump overboard. 
Just then a tug came up alongside, and a rush was made 
for it. 

" I was carried over with the rest, and fell underneath 
the struggling mass." 

Second Mate James Corcoran told the Coroner Conk- 
lin was among the first to hurry off the vessel to a tug. 

ENGINEER FLED FROM DANGER. 

"The first engineer (Conklin) was not at his post at 
the time of tlie fire," Corcoran declared. "He was one 
of the very first to leave the boat." 

The district surrounding St. Mark's Church was one 
of mourning. Clubs, churches of all denominations, 
stores, schools and restaurants were draped in mourning. 
Scores of funerals were held. 

A Methodist church and Baptist church were used 
for several of the funerals, but the majority were held at 
the homes of the victims. Fifty Lutheran clergymen ap- 
peared at St. Mark's Church and were sent around 
through the district to condujct the funerals. 

Several pastors held funerals over as many as six 
bodies. Sixth street, in the vicinity of the church, was 



101 STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 

packed from early moruing till late at night. All busi- 
ness in the street and in tlie surrounding streets was sus- 
pended ; in most places a card in the window said : 
"Closed on account of death." 

Late in the afternoon a carriage drove slowly past 
the church with a corpse sitting upright on the back seat 
supported by cushions. The body was wrapped in a 
sheet and was alone in the carriage. The driver had 
brought it from the Morgue. 

FIRST FUNERAL OF A VICTIM. 

The first funeral of a victim of the disaster was that 
of Miss Agnes Bell, 19 years old. The policemen 
guarded the hearse as it moved toward the Twenty-third 
street ferr}', and hundreds of mourners walked after it. 
The burial was in the Lutheran Cemetery, at Middle 
Village, L. L 

Following Miss Bell's funeral, others were held as 
fast as possible, and at night the hearses and processions 
of carriages were going through the streets. 

The body of a man was taken out of the water, and 
clasped in his right hand was a big bag of coins, dimes, 
nickels and pennies. The man was clutching the bag 
with such a grip that it took some strength to loosen the 
hold. The money caused his death. Had he dropped 
the bag and used his hands he undoubtedly could have 
kept afloat. A policemen put the bag on a pair of scales, 
and found that it weighed twenty-six pounds. It dragged 
the man to the bottom, without a show for life. 

Mayor McClellan issued a formal appeal to aid 
through the relief committee. 

More than $16,000 was contributed on the third day 
for the relief of survivors of the wreck. One of the first 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 



105 



big gifts came from H. H. Rogers, tlie Standard Oil mil- 
lionaire. It was a $1000 gold certificate, wliich was 
pinned to a slip of paper bearing tbe sender's name. 

In order to ascertain if there was any basis for tbe 
accusations wbicb are being made against tbe captain of 
the " Slocum," or if on the other hand there was any 
basis for the vigorous defense which his friends were 
making on his behalf, a newspaper chartered a vessel and 
sent it over the course which the steamer took. 

On board were photographers equipped with cameras, 
experts who were to note where a vessel of the " Slocum " 
type could or could not be beached, and lead lines to 
verify the depth of water as given by harbor charts. 
ALARM ON THE STEAMBOAT. 
It appears that the fire was discovered by a deck- 
hand just before the " Slocum " entered Hell Gate. He 
told how he first tried to smother the blaze and then gave 
the alarm to the mate, who transmitted it by tube to the 
captain in the pilot house. 

Going through Hell Gate with a flood tide vessels 
habitually travel at their best speed, as in that narrow 
swirl of water a vessel must answer her helm quickly, 
which she would be unable to do if she were going slowly. 
The " Slocum " had the tide with her, and this, with her 
own speed, must have been carrying her along at fully 

eighteen knots. 

As only a few minutes elapsed from the moment 
when the fire was first discovered to the time when the 
captain hurried from the pilot house to make inves- 
tigation, it indicates that the position of the " Slocum " 
then was about midway of Ward's Island. 

Giving him one minute to make his way from the 



106 STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 

pilot house to the *' forward cabin," as the witnesses 
speak of the compartment where the fire was discovered, 
and another minute to make his way back to the pihjt 
house, the "Slocum" then would have reached the 
sunken meadows, that long, wide shoal, where she might 
have been beached, broad off her port bow. 

No one except the captain himself can know what 
his estimate of the danger was. vSteamboat captains, like 
railroad engine drivers, must needs have active brains 
and decision, and action must come at once. Estimating 
the time which the newspaper boat made over this par- 
ticular part of the route — the difference in speed and state 
of tide being noted — it is figured that the captain of the 
"Slocum " had between one minute and a minute and a 
half in which to decide if the blaze which had broken out 
forward was serious enough to warrant his seeking the 
sunden meadows as a place to beach. 

NO PLACE TO LAND. 

It had been urged that the " Slocum " could have 
been beached on the opposite side of the stream. The 
expedition found no place on that side where this was 
practicable, the banks being "steep to," like sea walls in 
other words. 

The chance of beaching on the sunken meadows 
having passed — the "Slocum" being an uuwield}'' vessel 
and the tide with her — the next place where the vessel 
might have gone was to the pier of the Health Depart- 
ment at the foot of East 13 2d street. The steamboat "h)d- 
son," lying there promptly vacated the berth and seems to 
have done all she could with her whistles to call atten- 
tion to the berth. 

Captain Van Schaick does not say that he saw this ; 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 107 

he says thougli that he did sheer in to make the pier six 
blocks further up, but was warned away. 

The captain, in his statement, adds that he then 
stood for North Brother Island, intending to beach there. 
Scores of witnesses have said that the forward decks 
caved in before the "General Slocum" went aground. 

As the fire had broken out forward and as the wind 
was driving the flames straight aft, it has been urged 
that the pilot house had been made untenable before the 
vessel grounded, and that the tide drifted her to the point 
where she went aground. 

Summed up, the men on the vessel chartered by 
the newspaper found no place in the route taken by 
the "Slocum " where the vessel could have been earlier 
beached except the sunken meadows. That is, no place 
where she could have slid her keel after the captain had 
made his return to the pilot house. 

STEEP AND ROCKY SHORE. 

The Long Island shore is steep and rocky and 
above the meadows on the other side there was no place 
which the newspaper boat investigators could find where 
a vessel could have been beached with any chance of 
saving life. 

South Brother Island was a bit nearer than the North 
Brother, where she finally went ashore, but the prepon- 
derance of evidence is that the "Slocum" was not under 
control after her sheer in toward the 138th street wharf, 
and from which her captain says he was warned away. 

One of our leading journals commented on the 
disaster as follows : 

"The announcement of Secretary Cortelyou that 
he will personally conduct the inquiry into the disaster 



lUS STARTLING TESimoSW OV ICYK WITNESSES. 

to the Steamboat 'General Slocum' will give general 
satisfaction. There is certain to be a thorough investi- 
gation, as the Coroner will concU.ct a separate one. buch 
a catastrophe could not happen without some one being 
at fault. There is a disposition to blame the steamboat 
inspectors, who are under Secretary Cortelyon, but they 
.nav- not be to blame. And yet if the facts are as repre- 
sented, the steamboat owners and the inspectors are both 
responsible. 

LIFE PRESERVERS ROTTEN 
"The assertion that the life preservers were rotten 
is repeated so often, and so few persons appear to have 
been saved by the use of the preservers that there is 
reason to believe the charge to be true. Ifso the inspec- 
tors are to blame and also the steamship owners, i he 
fire hose on board the vessel was of no advantage appar- 
ently, and is said to have been decayed and leaking. No 
use ;as made of the lifeboats, and much that might 
apparently have been done was seemingly neglected. 
Perhaps there may be some excuse. 

••With plenty of good life preservers, properly 
adjusted, there should have been few lives lost where the 
t amer was beached. The crew was clearly not trained 
for an emergency. That should be made compulsoiy 
and a Government officer should be provided to inspect 
such performance of duty on every passenger vessel of 
II sL of the' General Slocnm.- The laws are now 
deficient in that respect. A bill to provide a partia 
remedy was passed by the Senate at its last session, but 
il failed in Conference Committee. 

"There is insufficient legislation to regulate ves- 
sels carrying such a large number of passengers. Ihis 



STARTLING TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 109 

disaster might easily be repeated almost any da}^ in the 
vicinity of New York. Fireproof paints, and even fire- 
proof wood will probably be used on all such vessels in 
time. But it should not be possible for a steamboat to be 
so quickly consumed as was the " General Slocum," caus- 
ing such an enormous loss of life. Such casualties in 
Europe are unknown. Both on the steamboats and on 
the railroads in this country there is a much greater 
waste of life, proportionately, than in Europe, while 
there should, if anything, be less. There is too much 
eagerness to save expense and make greater profit. 

INSTANCES OF GRAND HEROISM. 

" As is almost always the case when a great disaster 
occurs, the East River tragedy was attended by many 
instances of unselfish heroism. The plucky way in 
which the nurses and many of the patients from the 
hospital on North Brother Island rushed into the sea and 
fought with the waves to save life when the burning boat 
was beached deserve to be recognized. The captain and 
pilots of the " General Slocum " in sticking to their posts 
until the craft reached shore, although the pilot house in 
the fore part of the boat was threatened by the flames, 
seem to have had an adequate realization of their re- 
sponsibilities. 

"Whether Captain Van Schaick acted in the wisest 
manner has yet to be determined, but he showed at any 
rate that he was not a coward. Some of the crew are 
said to have become panic-stricken, and no intelligent 
attempt to launch the boats and life-rafts seems to have 
been made. There is also the charge that ghouls in the 
shape of robbers made their appearance, and that a yacht 
near the scene failed to render any assistance. 



110 



STARTLlN(i TESTIMONY OF EYE WITNESSES. 



" But while certain of the viler qualities of human 
nature were in evidence, the zeal and bravery of the boat- 
men, nurses and hospital attendants who did their best 
to rescue others proved once more that there is heroic 
stuff in a pretty lar.^^e proportion of mankind. 

"The pity of it all is that their efforts could do so 
little, for fuller information has swelled the number of 
the victims far beyond that given in the first reports. li 
the allegation is true that Federal laws are insufficient m 
their application to the inspection of excursion boats, the 
lack is one which should be promptly remedied when 
Congress meets again. As a matter of fact it is a ques- 
tion whether all large craft used for this purpose should 
not be required to be built of steel or iron. Such vessels 
might sink, but they would not burn." 




UsJ 



CHAPTER VI. 
FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

ON Friday the region in the vicinity of St. Mark's 
German Lutheran Church, in Hast Sixth streets 
was the scene of 114 funerals, representing the burial of 
nearly 200 bodies, almost all those of women and chil- 
dren. Enormous crowds thronged the streets of the 
quarter, and a large force of police was necessary to pre- 
vent disorder and keep clear a passage for the long litres 
of hearses and carriages. Funeral services were held in 
no fewer than thirty-seven churches of various denomi- 
nations in this section. 

Sixteen more bodies recovered during the day were 
brought from the scene of the wreck to the temporary 
Morgue at the foot of Bast Twenty-seventh street this 
afternoon. So great was the clamor for admission to the 
pier that all control of the crowd was lost, and on the 
entrance to the pier being thrown open a rush took place, 
during which many persons were knocked down and 
trampled upon. 

Twenty-nine of the unidentified dead were buried 011 
Friday by the city in the Lutheran Cemetery, leaving but 
eight bodies still awaiting identification in the Morgue. 

As the fourteen hearses carrying these twenty-nine 
unknown victims of the disaster passed an unusually 
large crowd stood respectfully on the sidewalk, making 
a line extending several blocks to the pier, whence the 
ferry carried them over to the Long Island shore. The 

111 



112 FUNERALS ATTHNDKI) HV SOBBING TfiOUSANDS. 

men stood with bowed and uncovered heads, and by fjir 
tlie greater portion of the women and children gathcrcc^ 
along the street knelt. Ivven those who arc ordinarily 
phlegmatic and undemonstrative were affected by the 
sorrmv that all seemed to feel, and sobs shook the frames 
..f the women while tears streamed down the cheeks of 
the men. The corte^^e continued throngh the streets 
lined wnth monrning thousands until it became a part of 
the long procession of funerals that were wending their 
way to the cemetery. 

One carriage only followed the hearses, carrying 
officers of the Health Department, who were ordered to 
make an accurate map of the great grave prepared for the 
bodies, so that if any are identified later by means of 
the chithing, the coffin containing the remains may be 
readily found. 

HOME IN THE CEMETERY. 
Out at the beautiful Lutheran Cemetery, that Gar- 
den of vSleep, where the dead will rest until the Day of 
judgment, 160 grave-diggers had prepared little earthen 
homes, well toward the scnithern slope of the cemetery, 
where the winter sunshines lovingly and the summer 
wind sings lullabys ot sorrowing intonation. Simple 
were the ceremonies of burial— a few words from the 
Bible_a few words of Scriptural consolation, and— a life 
of heart-break for the surviving relatives and friends. 

Through the streets of the stricken St. Mark's 
pn-ish on vSaturday passed the bodies of 156 men, women 
aud children, victims of the "Slocum" catastrophe, on 
their wav to graves in the Lutheran Cemetery, at Middle 
Village, L. I. One hundred and twenty-six of these 
bodies came from eighty-eight homes of the neighbor- 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 113 

hood, and the Morgue added thirty of those whose names 
in life will never be known. 

Services, as a rule, were most simple. Only a 
prayer, the reading of the Scriptures and the benediction 
were used in most cases, even where the minister faced 
three and even four caskets containing members of one 
family. It was the general wish that this should be so. 
The grief of the German district does not find outlet in 
ceremonial of an elaborate character. 

MORBIDLY CURIOUS CROWD. 

Throughout the day streets in the vicinity of St. 
Mark's Church were crowded. Many of the crowd were 
of the morbidly curious kind, but as many more were 
mourners, weeping women and children, and silent, 
heavy-eyed men were there to behold the last of lifelong 
friends and acquaintances. Evidences of mourning were 
everywhere. From almost every house, not alone the 
crepe on the door told of grief, but black-draped American 
and German flags and long streamers of black and purple 
and white swung from windows. In the windows of shops 
were black bordered cards bearing in German and 
English the legend : " We mourn the loss of our be- 
loved," or '* We mourn our loss." 

The police arrangements were perfect. Early in the 
day Inspector Schmittberger, having under him twenty- 
three sergeants, ten roundsmen and four hundred police- 
men, divided his force into squads of eleven — ten men 
and an officer — and there was a squad for each funeral 
during the day to keep back the crowds and to force 
passageways for the processions as they wound in and 
out of the streets. 

But there was no hard work for them to do. The 

N.Y. 8 



Ill KL-NKRALS ATTF.NDEU BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

crowds were most easily handled. It seemed as if all 
who came within the borders of the territory were trans- 
ferred into solemn, awestruck men, women and children. 
Silently the spectators lined curbs and sidewalks by the 
hour to see the hearses pass and repass. Only occasion- 
ally would a policeman have anything to do, and that 
would be perhaps when some man or woman would step 
out from the crowd, muttering incoherent words which 
told of evertaxed nerves. They were easily soothed and 
led away by friends. There were no nightsticks used by 
the policemen ; they carried none by command of the 
inspector. 

FUNERAL OF PASTOR'S WIFE. 
Chief of the funerals perhaps was that of Mrs. 
Haas w^ife of the pastor of the little church which had 
suffered so much. The old fashioned parsonage m 
Seventh street, just back of the church, was crowded at 
one o'clock by friends and representatives among the 
clergy. The floral decorations were profuse, tokens 
from ministers of every denomination of the city, as 

well as friends. 

Mr. Haas, whose nervous condition, was such that 
fears were entertained for his recovery, was led into the 
parlor, and a moment later Miss Kmma Haas, sister of 
the minister, herself still suffering greatly from the 
effects of her experience, was carried down stairs on a 
stretcher and placed beside the chair on which her 

brother sat. . , r i ^ 

The Rev. Dr. Alexander Richter, of vSt. Matthew s 
Cluirch, Hoboken, was in charge of the services and 
preached a sermon that dealt with resignation. The 
Rev. Dr. Jacob Loch, of Brooklyn, read the Scriptures, 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 115 

and the Rev. Dr. Heisclimann, president of the Minis- 
terium, and the Rev. Dr. Hugo Hoffman offered prayers. 
Only once were the services interrupted, and that 
was when a messenger called one of the ministers pres- 
ent aside, and after a whispered consultation it was 
announced to the brother and sister already stricken 
that but a moment before a bod}^ at the Morgue had been 
identified as that of i\Irs. Tetamore, Mrs. Haas' sister. 
With the authorities assisting in every M'a}^ the bod}' was 
at once brought to the house, and an hour later, when 
the funeral procession started there were two hearses, 
and the sisters were buried together. 

PICKPOCKET CAUGHT. 

Outside in the other streets, before the Haas funeral 
and afterward, funeral services were being conducted on 
every hand. 

In the crowd that assembled was Benjamin Lieber- 
mau, seventeen 3'ears old, whom the police knew. He 
was charged with having snatched the pocketbook from 
the hands of Mrs. Rosie Fischer. 

At the woman's scream the crowd turned and saw 
her struggling with the man. Detective Ross, of Inspec- 
tor Schmittberger's staff, was on the man at once, and 
there was another brief struggle. Then Ross had 
another problem confronting him. The crowd had 
turned toward the prisoner, with "Lynch him! Kill 
him!" 

Men struck and kicked at the prisoner, and one 
man struck him above the e3^e, inflicting a severe bruise. 
The screams of the women and the shouts of men could 
be heard for blocks. Luckily other policemen came to 
the aid of the detective and his prisoner. 



116 FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

Not a half hour later came another shock to the 
crowds and this perhaps was the greatest of the day. 
Down Second avenne, moving slowly, came a procession 
of fourteen hearses, followed by one carriage only, con- 
taining two men. At the head a black hearse bore a 
black casket of an adult and at its side a tmy white one 
At the Morgue the ticket had read: '' Unidentified 
woman found with child clasped in her arms." 

Behind this came several black hearses and then one 
of white in which side by side were three white caskets. 
Another interval of black and another white casket bear- 
ing two, a black hearse bearing two, another mother and 
child, and so on through the fourteen. 

MOURNING BY SILENT CROWD. 
Straight down the avenue from the I^Iorgue the pro- 
cession had come slowly, and just as slowly it turned 
through Sixth street. If the crowd had been silent before 

it was now almost immovable, ^^^y ^^ "f , "IIV^ 
the procession passed conld be heard a hal f-stifled Ah ! 
as some woman or man sunk on the pavement m pmyer 
or 'in a fit of weeping. Through Sixth street to First 
avenne went the procession ; down First avenue to Fifth 
street and so on east and south to Delancey street, where 
was the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge. It was 
almost the climax of the day's strain, but the police 
anticipated even more distressing scenes, for many more 
remained to be buried throughout the district. 

In one instance, that of the Ritcher family fin- 
instance, there were six bodies awaiting the coming of 
the hearse. There were three in some other families, 
four in one instance. The crowds would be greater the 
police feared because of Sunday, but there wcnild be six 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 117 

hundred policemen to preserve order and prevent conges- 
tion. 

The bodies on Friday were buried in the Lutheran 
Cemetery at Middle Village, L. I., and the way for all 
the processions was across the new Williamsburg Bridge. 
From nine o'clock till five the processions were almost 
continuous across the structure, and the sight was wit- 
nessed by thousands of the east side who filled Delancey 
street and other thoroughfares. 

GRAVES FOR THE UNKNOWN. 

Out at the cemetery during the night one hundred 
and fifty men had been busily engaged in digging 
graves. For the unidentified dead and for the poorest, the 
cemetery trustees had provided a plot 250 feet square, and 
in this the twenty-nine bodies were buried. The others 
were scattered all over the cemetery. There was pro- 
fusion of flowers everywhere, for societies, churches and 
individuals had been most generous. The order at the 
cemetery was perfect. There was no confusion. There 
were no services there. 

Five members of one family in Williamsburg were 
buried from the home of William Blohm, Williamsburg. 
They were Blohm's wife, Anna, twenty-eight years old ; 
his married sister, Mrs. Annie Smith, twenty-four years 
old, and her two-year-old daughter, Mildred, and his two 
sisters, Margarette and Dora Blohm, eighteen and fifteen 
years old. 

Another child of Mrs. Smith, which perished on the 
ill-fated steamer, Beatrice, two months old, had not been 
recovered. Mrs. Margarette Blohm, fifty-three years, 
the mother of Blohm, was the only one of the family on 
the excursion to be saved. So great was the throng of 



U8 FUNERALS ATfK.N-DF.n BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

mourners in and around the house that Poli- Captain 
Becker, of the Hantburg avenue station, was obliged to 

"^^Thl fi^ wSn separate caskets, .ere ,n thefront 
.ooni of the Blohni house. They were taken in^five 
hearses to the Lutheran Cemetery, before the f^ineal 
cortege left the house a Lutheran nnnister officiated at a 
brief service. Hundreds followed to the cemetery^ 

An immediate and thorough inspection by the Federal 
authtities of all excursion boats pb' -S a^out the harbor 
of the city was demanded by Mayor McClellan. 

The Mayor further directed Police Commissioner 
MeAdooto contract with the Merritt-Chapman N\ recking 
Company to raise the hull of the "Slocum" as quickly 
as "ossible. This action was to be taken -S-f ^ ^^ 
legal complications as to whether the sunken hu 1 of the 
.'Slocum" was within the jurisdiction of the Federal or 
municipal authorities, in order to release the bodies of 
victims still confined in the wreckage. 

RELIEF BY CITY GOVERNMENT. 

The Board of Aldermen held a special meeting and 

authorized the Board of Estimate and Appointment to 

Line S^o coo in bonds to meet the expenditures made by 

he Commi'ioners of Health, Police and Charities diuing 

;: Ust few days in assisting the survivors a"d -latives 

of the victims to recover the bodies of their dead. 

In ailing upon George B. Cortelyou, Secretary of 
the Department of Commerce and Labor, for an inspection 
of excursion craft, the Mayor 1-"'^^ -' ''^ . ^^J >' 
authorities were without jurisdiction -'^ "nablc h^re- 
fore to protect citizens from such dangers. In closm , 
[he Mayor said that anticipating Secretary Cortelyou' s 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 119 

compliance with his request, if a modification of existing 
regulations should be undertaken, the experts of the Fire, 
Health and Building departments of the city would, if 
desired, be placed at his service to facilitate the work. 

With regard to the raising of the hull of the " Gen- 
eral Slocum " the Mayor was acting at the suggestion of 
Police Commissioner McAdoo. In his letter to Commis- 
sioner McAdoo, authorizing him to raise the money, the 
Mayor said : 

*' I agree with you that in order to recover an}'- bodies 
that may be therein, and to obtain any physical evidence 
which may throw light on the cause of the disaster, the 
hull of the "Slocum " should be raised without delay. 

COST OF RAISING WRECK. 

''As the underwriters are unwilling to expend more 
than $6,000 for the work, and as you inform me it will 
cost $12,000, I hereby authorize you to contract with the 
Merritt-Chapman Company to raise the hull at an expense 
not to exceed $12,000, the work to be done as soon as pos- 
sible ; you to take entire supervision of it." 

With the discovery of from thirty to fifty more 
bodies of ''Slocum " victims in a pocket nearly a quarter 
of a mile from where the boat was beached on North 
Brother Island, it became evident that the grewsome 
total would be greatly enlarged. 

A diver, who renewed the search for victims, found 
a deep hole in the bed of the river practically filled witli 
bodies. Within an hour after the search was begun eight 
bodies had been brought to the surface, and when he was 
forced to abandon work for a time because of the swift 
current, he stated that between thirty and fifty bodies 
still remained in the hole. 



l-j,, FUNERALS ATTENDED liY SOBUINO THOL'SANDS. 

The diver was searching along the river bottom and 
had reached a point near the foot of the sloping lawn on 
North Brotherlsland where the bodies of the first vctun. 
of the tragedy were laid on Wednesday, when he found 
Lveral bo'liel lying together, and at first supposed here 
were no more than half a dozen m the pile, but upon 
removing several, he found a great hole m the nver bed 

"'^t Je'^^Sitsptt Robert S. Rodie. of the Steam- 
boat Inspection force, was asked to send an inspector 
to the excursion boat "Grand Republic," a -ter boat of 
the "General Slocum," for the purpose of testing the 
life-savin"- appliances on her, and thus proving, for the 
betfi of thl public, both the safety of the boat and the 
efficiency of the force of inspectors. He refused o grant 
the req/est on the grounds that red tape -- - ';!;-y 
of an immediate compliance, and also said that the re- 
quest would not be heeded anyway. 

ORDERED TO SAY NOTHING. 

He would not discuss the question further, saying 

that he was under orders from Secretary Cortelyou to say 

nothing until the investigation into the accident by the 

Department of Commerce and Labor had been com- 

^^" tt was ascertained that no less than ^o per cent of 
the life preservers on the "General Slocum were thir- 
teen years old ; that only some fourhundred of these had 
ever been repaired ; that in thirteen years the compaiiy 
olning the "General Slocum" had bought only 15CK> 
new lil preservers, while 5x00 life V^'^^^^.^^ T'^ 
quired on the two boats-" Grand R^P"W-'-f ^ ^"^ 
eral Slocum " ; that the life-preservers on the ill-tated 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 121 

boat were passed only this spring by the steamboat 
inspectors. 

What was ascertained in regard to the Steamboat 
Inspection Bureau of the Department of Commerce and 
Labor was a revelation. It showed the bureau to be a 
cumbrous machine, bound into a state of ponderous slow- 
ness by red tape, unable to do much, if anything, of its 
own inclination ; dependent upon other departments not 
allied with it in the first instance in all cases ; at best but 
perfunctory in the discharge of its duties and possessed 
of about all the short-comings and defects that Govern- 
ment departments are heir to. 

TO RESTORE PUBLIC CONFIDENCE. 

Supervising Inspector Rodie was asked first if he 
would consent to send one of his inspectors to the "Grand 
Republic" to make a public test of the life-saving appli- 
ances on that steamboat. It was explained that the pur- 
pose of the request was to restore public confidence, if 
possible, in the protection afforded by the Knickerbocker 
Company for the passengers on its boats, and in the effi- 
ciency of the steamboat inspectors. 

Inspector Rodie resented the request and replied, in 
part: 

"All such applications must be made in writing on a 
printed form to the local Board of Inspectors, and before 
anything will be done it must be duly considered." 

" In your opinion would anything result from such 
a request?" was asked. 

" No." 

" A citizen, then, no matter how grave his reasons 
for desiring such an inspection of a vessel might be, 
would be unable to secure an inspection ? " 



Vl'l FUNERALS A'lTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

"In my opinion," replied Supervising Inspector 
Rodie, " the board would not act on such a request. All 
such requests must be made by the owners or masters of 
vessels, and the board does not devote its time to attend- 
ing to the wants of the public." 

" Does not the system afford the owners and masters 
of vessels full opportunities to do about as they please, 
and is not the system arbitrary and extremely faulty at 
least ? " was asked. 

" I do not understand it to be so." 

NO INSPECTION CERTAIN. 
" Is the bureau in a position to keep surveillance 
over the craft of this harbor and make inspections on its 
own initiative regardless of the requests of captains and 

owners ?" 

" The functions of this department are executive, 
not punitive. The Collector of Customs notifies us of 
much regarding vessels, and we get information in other 
ways, but no inspection may be made. I am not going 
to dis'cuss the law that creates this bureau. The law and 
the book of rules governing the bureau will furnish all 
necessary information". 

Mr. Rodie produced copies of the law and the rules, 
and dismissed the subject. He was then asked about the 
life preservers purchased by the Knickerbocker Com- 
pany for the " General Slocum," and said that all he 
knew was that his inspectors had inspected all life pre- 
servers sold to that company. With a view to ascertain- 
ing the names of the inspectors who inspected the life 
preservers sold by the manufacturer who supplied the 
Knickerbocker Company at the time that the company 
made its last purchase of 300 new life belts and had 200 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 123 

old ones repaired, Mr. Rodie was asked to open his books. 
He gave the names of the inspectors as John F. Walsh, 
Henry Lundberg, Peter C. Petrie and Cornelius H. 
Smith. Mr. Rodie was asked to produce these men. 

"You will have to hunt up your own men," he replied. 

Application for interviews with these men was made 
at the proper department, where an aged clerk, whose 
appearance was strongly suggestive of a pensioner, 
answered: 

"You wouldn't be allowed to interview them if they 
were in. The bureau reserves the right to make its own 
investigation, and it can do so if it wants to, hey ?" 

Thus were all avenues to a public investigation of 
the "General Slocum" closed. 

"I have absolute confidence in every inspector in this 
bureau," said Mr. Rodie, in conclusion. 

TEST A FE\V SAMPLES. 

"In the face of the fact that rotten life preservers on 
the ''General Slocum" were passed by them as good?" 
was asked. 

"Sir," he said, "I have." 

In regard to this particular section, the statements 
of Supervising Inspector Rodie were aglow with light. 
In regard to the methods of the inspectors in looking 
over life preservers Mr. Rodie said: 

"They select a few samples promiscuously from a 
pile of the material to be inspected and test them and 
then, if these stand the test, on the assurance of the 
maker that those in the pile are all right, the inspector 
stamps them as passed." 

"He does not see, then, that everyone is all right?" 
was asked. 



124 FUNERALS ATTF.NDED liV SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

"No/' said Mr. Rodie, "He can't." 

"Why?" 

"Well, it would take too iiiiicli time and too much 
labor. The inspectors haven't the time to do it." 

There were two standpipes on the big excursion 
steamship, one on the port and one on the starboard side. 
That which was brought up by Diver Rice was from the 

port side. 

Commissioner TvIcAdoo ordered Captain Divilin, 
chief wrecker of the Merritt-Chapman Wrecking Com- 
pany, to take Divers Greenberg and Hine, who have had 
long experience with manipulating machinery under 
water, to go down at the earliest possible moment and 
bring up the standpipe on the starboard side. If this 
was locked also the commissioner thought that he could 
prove without a doubt that the assertion that water was 
poured on the flames by the crew was untrue. 
A MASS OF RAGING FIRE. 

But there was another and a more conclusive way in 
which to establish the fact that water was or was not 
ased as the "General Slocum" went up the river a mass 
of fire. In the keel of the boat are two seacocks, one 
of which controls the flow of water to the boilers, the 
other to the pumps. The cocks were built in the keel 
on either side of the engines. If the divers found that 
one which admits the water to the boiler was open, as it 
undoubtedly was, nothing whatever would be proved for 
or against the theory that the crew's tale of fighting the 
flames was not based on facts. 

But if, on tlie other hand, they found that the sea- 
cock which controls the flow of water to the fire pumps 
was locked, there could be no doubt that no water was 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 125 

used to extinguisli the fire. The account of bursting 
hose and desperate struggles to make what water was 
obtained most effective would be discredited and the in- 
vestigation started on another track. It would mean also 
either that the engineer was deceived in his belief that 
while his assistant was standing by his post and driving 
the blazing boat ahead as fast as every ounce of steam 
could push her, he himself piled the hose, or that he in 
the excitement of remembrance of the horror somewhat 
exaggerated the real condition of things. 

Life-preservers were found on five of the bodies 
dragged from the water off North Brother Island. These 
bodies, instead of floating close to the surface, were found 
in the mud of the river bottom. 

LIFE PRESERVERS A WEIGHT. 

Coroner O'Gorman made a careful examination of 
the bodies, and declared that in each case the so-called 
"life-preservers" had acted as a weight to drag the wearer 
down. 

Each of these five life-preservers was outwardly in 
perfect condition. The canvas was unbroken and the 
straps were in proper position. But the pulverized cork 
that formed the filling of each "preserver" was water- 
logged and as heavy as stone. 

There was not a particle of buoyancy in any of the 
five. On the contrary, each was a dead weight, under 
which even a strong swimmer would speedily tire. 

Coroner O'Gorman made no concealment of his 
opinion. After a close inspection of these life-preservers, 
he said: 

"They prove a point that I have assumed from the 
first hour of my work in this appalling case — namely, 



126 FUNERALS ATTENDKD l;Y SOHBING THOUSANDS. 

tliat tlie life-preservers on board the 'General Slocum* 
were in reality life-destroyers. 

"These exhibits will figure prominently at the com- 
ing inquest. The District Attorney will also be keenly 
interested in them." 

The startling fact that the number of persons un- 
accounted for in the destruction of the "General Slocum" 
was much greater than was generall}- believed was 
brought to light throught the effort of a newspaper to 
verify the list of the missing. It was expected that the 
reporters who were assigned to the duty of making a 
house to house canvass for the purpose of correcting the 
lists would be able to show a reduction of the number 
believed to have perished. 

^A^HOLE FAMILIES MISSING. 

That expectation was based on the supposition that 
many who, during the early anxiety of friends, had been 
reported as missing, had returned home and that then 
the formality of reporting them as having come back had 
been overlooked. 

Just the opposite proved to be correct. In many cases 
whole families were still missing, and had not been men- 
tioned in the missing list at all, and in other cases in- 
complete reports had been made were more than one of a 
household had not returned. 

This proved particularly true in First, Second, 
Third, Fourth and Seventh streets, though it applied in 
a measure to the entire locality. In several instances the 
reporters had their lists of missing one-third lengthened 
instead of reduced, indicating that the extreme estimate 
of the magnitude of the accident would prove in the end 
to be correct. 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 127 

Instances were found where thirty persons reported 
missing had returned, but at the same time it was dis- 
covered that twenty missing persons had never been re- 
ported, so that their disappearance was not suspected by 
the authorities. It was also found in many instances 
where it was thought only one child was missing in a 
family several were unaccounted for. 

SCARCITY OF COFFINS. 

Another sad feature revealed by the visitations was 
the discovery that because of the great demand made 
upon East Side undertakers the funerals were delayed, 
and cofSns could not be furnished fast enough. In one 
of the homes so distressed a funeral was set for the after- 
noon. The mourners all collected, and were sitting in 
the rooms adjoining the little parlor, but had to be in- 
formed that the funeral could not take place until next 
day. 

Something more distressing still was revealed. A 
band of thieves was working among the distracted mourn- 
ers. Several homes were robbed, in at least one instance 
the thieves having taken articles which were in the room 
in which the body lay. 

It was a noticeable fact that the homes of the vic- 
j tims of the accident were generally neat and comfortable, 
typical in many ways of the care of the German house- 
wives, in some instances now lying dead in the rooms 
they took such pride in keeping tidy. 

Willie Kepple, ii years old, was believed to be 
among the missing, but he reached his home late Friday 
night. 

"As soon as I hit the water," he said, "I started to 
swim out toward the centre of the stream, but the tide 



128 FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

was SO strong I went back five strokes every time I took 
one, so I made up my mind that I would not tire myself 
out, so I just turned over on m}' back and floated. That's 
what we used to do down at the docks. You see, if a fel- 
low wants to stay in the water longer than some one else, 
he must just hold back his strength. 

"So while I was a floating they were a-jnmping over 
the side of the steamer. Twenty would jump at once, 
and right on top of 'em twenty more would jump. Then 
there w^ould be a skirmish of grabbing at heads and arms, 
and the fellows what could swim would be pulled duwu, 
and had to fight their way up. 

PULLED OUT OF THE WATER. 

"Two women who got near shouted for me to help 
them, and I tried to, but they were too big, and I had to 
break away to save myself. When I was in the water 
about half an hour they pulled me out on a tugboat and 
chucked me up on the deck. I was so scared that I might 
get a licking for going on the excursion without being 
let go that I stayed up in Harlem and slept in the park. 
Yesterday when I picked up a newspaper I saw ni}' name 
among the missing, so I thought I'd come home and get 
the licking instead of breaking my mother's heart. So 
I'm home, and my mother onl}- kissed me, and m}' father 
gave me half a dollar for being a good swimmer." 

Coroner Berry continued his preparations for the in- 
quest into the causes that led to the sickening disaster 
on the " General Slocum." 

The allegations made before the Coroner by Coaklc}^, 
the deckhand, who definitely established where and when 
the fire originated, and b}' Second Mate Corcoran, who 
said Engineer Conklin shirked his work and got away 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 129 

" without getting his feet wet," produced a sensation, 
and these two men were to be among the principal wit- 
nesses examined by the Coroner. 

The Coroner obtained another interesting witness 
in the person of John Engleman. Engleman said that 
he worked for years on a New York, New Haven and 
Hartford tug, knew the river thoroughly and knew that 
when he first saw the fire the " Slocum " was opposite 
Ninety-second street. The man said he knew what to 
expect when he saw that the crew was making no effort 
to subdue the flames, so he and his wife and son jumped 
into the river not long after he discovered that the boat 
was on fire. 

THIN FIRE HOSE. 

One of the witnesses examined by Coroner Berry 
was William A. Ortraan, who was in charge of the ice 
cream booth. He said he was near the wheelhouse when 
the fire was seen. He saw several of the crew trying to 
fasten a section of hose to the stand pipe, but they had 
to give up the attempt, as the threads on the hose were 
so much worn that when the water was turned on the 
hose was thrown several feet away from the* stand pipe. 

Coroner Berry obtained another piece of evidence 
in the shape of a five-foot piece of the fire hose used on 
the " Slocum." It is of thin canvas, without rubber lin- 
ing, and experts say that on the slightest pressure 
of water from within it would leak like a sieve. 
The hose was brought up by the wreckers, and within an 
hour was in the Coroner's hands. 

General Daniel E. Sickles, member of the Board of 
Aldermen, sent the following communication to President 
Roosevelt : 

N.Y. 9 



130 FUNERALS A'lTENDKD BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

" I have just rcturued from a meeting of the Board 
of Aldermen, it being in reference to the awful calamity 
which came to us last week — the loss of the steamboat 
"General Slocum," in which nearly looo of our women 
and children perished. 

** This misfortune has touched every heart in the 
municipality, and has brought sympathy to us from 
every part of the world. Of course, you have already 
taken such steps in the right direction as becomes your 
office, but I trust you will not regard it amiss to receive 
a suggestion or two from one of the ' city fathers.' 

OFFICIALS CHARGED WITH NEGLIGENCE. 

" There is an impression here that the Federal offi- 
cials charged with the duty of inspecting steamboats 
have been negligent and inefficient, and that they are 
gravely at fault, in not having done what they might 
have done to avoid what has happened. 

" Pray see that the steamboat inspectors shall be 
competent and trustworthy, and if further legislation be 
necessary to provide safeguards for the future, ask Con- 
gress to provide for them. 

" You will agree with me, I am sure, that a prompt 
and thorough investigation of all the facts is of prime im- 
portance, as well to fix responsibility for the past as 
to provide a guarantee for the future. 
"Sincerely yours, 

" Daniel E. Sickles." 

Inspector General Uhler, of the Steamboat Inspec- 
tion Service, came to New York to take up the investiga- 
tion of the "Slocum" disaster. 

Mr. Uhler had a long conference with his subor- 
dinates, and a preliminary report made on the 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 131 

disaster for the President's guidance, and then a 
vigorous campaign of inquiry made all over the 
country to enforce the laws and prevent a repetition of 
the '^Slocum" horror. Inspector General Uhler was to 
remain in New York until the inquiry there was com- 
pleted. 

"The tragedy has caused this office to be swamped 
with correspondence," said General Uhler. " Thousands 
of letters are coming in from persons in every part of the 
country who have theories or inventions that they claim 
will prevent or make impossible such awful occurrences. 
Inventors of life-saving apparatus, pumps, hose, diving 
belts and chemical fluids for rendering wood fireproof 
are writing here, demanding that their schemes be adop- 
ted by the government. I do not know whether any of 
them are useful. It is not my province to decide. It 
seems to me, though, that the only way to prevent such 
horrors as that in New York Harbor is to require all 
the boats to be built fireproof Time and experiment 
may prove that this is possible." 

THICK WITH HEARSES AND CARRIAGES, 

All lanes in St. Mark's parish led to the cemetery on 
Sunday. The narrow streets on the Bast Side were congest- 
ed with hearses and carriages from 8 o'clock in the morn- 
ing until night. 

Swarming over the sidewalks, men, women and 
children followed in the wake of the solemn corteges and 
on out to the cemetery, where thousands witnessed the 
last chapter in the disposition of the dead. 

Superintendent Avenus, of the cemetery, said that 
150 persons in all were buried there on that day. All 
were "Slocum" victims from the various boroughs. 



132 FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

Profcssioual funeral-goers, shorn of sentiment for 
the dead or sympathy for the stricken living, invaded 
St. Mark's parish. Women were the greatest offenders. 

Seeking a "free ride," they forced their way into the 
carriages halted before the houses of the dead, and defied 
the mourners to dislodge them. Only when the police 
charged them were they routed. 

Blocking the sidewalks before the houses from 
which the dead were being borne, these women brushed 
the mourners aside, taking their places in the waiting 
carriages. At several funerals the police surrounded 
the carriages, driving the crowd back with drawn clubs, 
and thus made way for those who were entitled by rela- 
tionship to occupy the seats. 

THOUSANDS IN ATTENDANCE. 

Nearly 50,000 persons jammed the cemetery roads, 
overflowing on to the lawns and mounds, fighting for 
vantage points. One woman fainted in the crush and 
was trampled. Her arm was broken. 

The exterior markings of mourning in the parish 
began to disappear. A few flags floated, but the crepe 
that gave the district a cloak of black following the dis- 
aster was noticeably absent. 

Little children pla3'ed half-heartedly in the streets. 
Their elders seemed to be endeavoring to lay aside the 
sorrows of the present to better meet the hopes of the 
future. On every hand were evidences that the cloud of 
gloom was lifting. 

This was emphasized by the impressiveness of the 
Sunday morning service in St. Mark's. It was the first 
since the disaster. 

The services at St. Mark's at all times are simple. 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 133 

The interior of the church suggests simplicity. The 
people who worship there are simple people, practical in 
life, moderate in mind. 

In the morning a remnant of the congregation gath- 
ered to pay tribute to those who had been taken to their 
Maker. A week before they had gathered there, every 
pew filled, men, women and children in the full flush of 
health and happiness, thrilled with the expectancy of 
delight as the pastor announced the excursion that would 
be taken on the *' General Slocum." 

CAME FROM STRICKEN HOMES, 

The flock had been decimated by death. Every per- 
son there came from stricken homes. Some pews were 
empty — the pews of families the disaster had ex- 
terminated. 

There were no greetings at the door, no gossip in 
the aisles, not even a sob or a sigh. The fountain of 
tears had run dry. Men who had not been in church for 
years came to take the place of wives who had gone to 
their graves — mothers who had always taken the little 
ones to Sunday school and church. In many cases the 
children had also gone to the grave. 

The Rev. Dr. John H. Holstein, former pastor of 
St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Brooklyn, 
mounted the pulpit. As the service was about to begin 
the vestry door opened. 

The congregation stood up. Suppressed sorrow was 
released and a pitiful sob came in unison from the lips of 
all as the bowed figure of the pastor, the Rev. George C. 
F. Haas, supported by his brother and son, filled the 
frame of the door. 

Trembling with sobs, his hands and face in baud- 



J31 FUNERAI.S ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

ages, he was led to a seat As he stood in sileut prayer 
for the wife and daughter who had been torn from him 
and the hundreds of his flock who had gone to death, the 
remnant of his people remained standing. It was the 
first time the pastor had entered the church since the 
disaster. 

Extreme simplicity marked the service. There was 
no sermon ; no music. Dr. Holstein read a poem, " Who 
Knows How Near Is My End." Then he read in suc- 
cession the i4tli chapter of John, the 39th Psalm, the 
first epistle of St. Peter, chapter 5, verses 6 to 11 ; the 
seventh chapter of Revelation, from the ninth verse to 
the end. 

PASTORS PATHETIC FIGURE. 

Prayers for the afflicted were then recited and the 
congregation silently filed out after the pathetic figure 
of the pastor had been led back to his home through the 
vestry door. 

The undertakers began early in the morning search- 
ing Manhattan, Brooklyn, and even New Jersey', for 
hearses and carriages. A sufficient number could not be 
had, and many families who had prepared for funerals in 
the afternoon learned that the processions to the grave 
must start in the morning. 

The first cortege was started at 8 o'clock. The hearse 
had to return for others of the dead. Inspector Schmitt- 
berger was on hand with 450 policemen. Long before 
noon a score of funeral processions were Vvindiug their 
way through the East Side streets toward the Williams- 
burg bridge. 

There was no music in the van. Alongside the 
v/hite hearses which marked the funerals of children, 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 135 

youthful pallbearers marched. Some hearses carried two 
or three little ones. And in some of the black hearses, 
on top of the caskets of adults, could be seen tiny boxes 
containing infants. Frequently a white hearse followed 
a black one in the same line. And occasionally came a 
black hearse and several white ones. Thus the silent 
processions indicated to the spectators the extent of the 
loss to those who followed in the mourners' carriages. 

Wreaths and flowers covered the coffins. In some 
cases an open carriage filled with flowers led the way ; 
again, a florist's wagon carried the off"erings. The hum- 
blest victim had not been forgotten. 

GREAT QUANTITIES OF FLOWERS. 

The cadets from Old St. Mark's Church, on Second 
avenue, formed in line, after Sunday school, and, bearing 
great quantities of flowers, marched through the stricken 
district, distributing wreaths to the home of each of the 
victims. 

In the afternoon the entrance to the Williamsburg 
Bridge was jammed with carriages. A black line over 
the north drive marked the procession, and was noted for 
miles up and down the river. It was unbroken all day. 

It was not until late in the afternoon that the police 
lost patience with the " funeral ghouls." These thought- 
less persons had been more or less active all day, but not 
until the last few funerals were making up and the 
chance of a "ride" was growing less did they lose all 
semblance of decency. 

The most flagrant offence was at the funeral from 
the home of Edward and Charles Schmidt, in East Ninth 
street, where the wife of Edward and the mother of 
Charles and the latter' s wife and son, lay dead. More 



136 FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

than 5000 persons crowded into the block. The relatives 
and friends of the family had difficulty in gaining access 
to the apartment. 

There were three hearses at the door and a score of 
carriages. As the pall-bearers carried the three coffins 
out of the house a hundred women pressed forward to get 
a seat in the carriages. 

Sergeant Fennell and twenty policemen drove them 
back, but they rushed again. Some of them obtained 
seats, and only relinquished them when threatened with 
arrest. As each carriage drove up to the door it was 
surrounded by a score of policemen. 

UNBLUSHING AFFRONTERY. 

" What do you want to get in these carriages for ? " 
Sergeant Fennell asked a woman and her two grown-up 
daughters, whom he had driven out for the third time. 

"Oh, it's a nice day for a ride," replied the mother, 
unblushingly. 

The same trio was dislodged from a carriage later. 
They had entered from the off side while the driver was 
making his way through the crowd. 

The most conspicuous funeral was that of Mrs. 
Clara Klein, wife of Edward Klein, a liquor dealer. His 
mother and two of his children were also lost on the ill- 
fated steamboat. 

In Klein's wine room, the services were held. Under 
a cloak of black crape every vestige of the wine room 
had been obliterated. Edward Klein, Jr., seventeen 
years old, who had his kneecap broken on the "Slocum," 
sat beside his mother's coffin, propped in a chair. He 
fainted during the services, but when revived insisted 
upon going to the cemetery and was lifted into a car- 



FUNERALS ATTENDED BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 137 

riage. Inspector Schmittberger led the funeral proces- 
sion to the bridge at tbe bead of fifty policemen. 

Mingled with the East Side funerals was one that 
came from St, Thomas's Church, at Fifth avenue and 
Fifty-third street. It followed to the bridge in the wake 
of some for whom there had been no service at all. The 
Lutheran pastors, like the hearses, were not numerous 
enough to go around. They had been summoned from 
every point within reach of New York. Some of them 
conducted six and eight services. 

FUNERAL OF A CHOIR BOY. 

The funerals of Mrs. Elizabeth C. Schrumpf, wife of 
Jacob Schrumpf, a retired mounted policeman, and her 
two sons, John Edward and William Walter, fifteen and 
seventeen years old, respectively, were held from their 
home. 

The youngest son had been a choirboy at St. 
Thomas's, and his tragic death proved a hard blow to 
his choirmates. The full choir sang at his funeral ser- 
vice in St. Thomas's in the afternoon. His mother and 
brother were borne to the church beside him. The three 
hearses standing in front of the church attracted the 
regular Sunday afternoon paraders on Fifth avenue, 
many of whom entered the church for the services. 

One chapter of the tragedy had its setting in Har- 
lem, at an undertaking establishment. Mrs. Dunn and 
Miss Irwin had been identified with the Harlem branch 
of the Salvation Army. Colonel Milce and Captain 
Green conducted the services over their dead bodies in 
the morning. The undertaker's room could not hold all 
the mourners, who overflowed on to the sidewalk, where 
the police kept them segregated from a vast throng of 



138 FUNERAUS ATTKNDKI) BY SOBBING THOUSANDS. 

curiosity seekers. Of a party of eleven on the excur- 
sion, only three survived. 

Miss Mary Abendscliein was buried from her home. 
She was assistant superintendent of St. Mark's Sunday- 
school, and had been one of the promoters of the excur- 
sion. It is said she gave up her life in endeavoring to 
save some of her youthful charges. W. H. Pullman, 
treasurer of the parish, was buried from his home, a few 
doors a\va3\ 

There was no music at either service. A member 
of the church said that the choir had been practically 
exterminated. 

The last funeral did not leave the Manhattan end 
of the bridge until dusk. 




CHAPTER VII. 
THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 

TN practically every churcli in Greater New York tlie 
■^ "Slocum" disaster was made the theme of the Sunday 
morning or evening sermon, and the universal grief over 
the great loss of life was expressed, coupled in many in- 
stances with outspoken denunciation of the Knicker- 
bocker Steamboat Company and the officials who were 
charged with the responsibility of insuring perfect life 
saving appliances on the ill-fated steamboat. 

In accordance with the instructions of Bishop Potter, 
a special prayer for the victims was said in all the Epis- 
copal churches. 

There was particular pathos in the message of 
sympathy which was adopted by the Sunday school of 
the People's Methodist Episcopal Church, in East Sixty- 
first street. Children's Day was observed there and by a 
rising vote, the young people of the church, at the after- 
noon session, adopted resolutions of sympathy for the 
sister church which was almost completely depopulated 
of its Sunday school children by the burning of the "Gen- 
eral Slocum." 

Rev. Dr. James Oliver Wilson, of the Nostrand 
Avenue Methodist Church, Brooklyn, severely rebuked 
the steamboat company. 

"Sin did it," said Dr. Wilson, "sin in the individual, 
and sin in the corporation. But for sin in the Knicker- 
bocker Steamboat Company, the sin of greed and covet- 

139 



140 THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 

ousness, the boat would not have been burned. Four 
firemen properly stationed with hose that was not rotten 
could have extinguished au}^ fire that might have broken 
out. But these four firemen would have cost the com- 
pany $io a da}^ and that would have affected the profits 
and dividends and must not be thought of. 

"What if nine hundred souls do perish — we must 
not imperil the dividends. Thus the sin of greed in the 
company overreached itself and destroyed nine hundred 
lives. 

" And hundreds of rotton life preservers are charge- 
able to the same sin. 

A FEARLESS CHARGE. 

" I charge this appalling disaster, these rotton life- 
preservers and rotton hose and lack of firemen, not to 
God's account, but to the Knickerbocker Steamboat Com- 
pany. And if this be not enough, then bring in the 
steamboat inspectors for their shameful share in this 
slaughter of the innocents. Sin in the corporation, sin 
in the inspectors and sin in the cowardly crew occasioned 
this awful tragedy." 

Rev. Dr. John Lloyd Lee, at the Westminster Pres- 
byterian Church in West Twent3'-third street, also made 
the "Slocum" disaster a text for his sermon. Dr. Lee 
dwelt especiall}^ upon two points — the responsibilit}^ that 
attaches to individuals, and the instances of heroic self- 
sacrifice that were observed at the time of the catastrophe. 

" With the growth of corporations," said he, "there 
is a tendenc}'^ to eliminate the individuals, so that no one 
person can be held responsible when something goes 
wrong. A special effort should be made to meet the 
circumstances growing out of this situation, and those 



THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 141 

who should see to it that steamboats are in proper con- 
dition should be held to a strict accountability." 

St. James Lutheran Church, at Seventy-third street 
and Madison avenue, half a score of whose members 
perished in the disaster, also extended sympathy to St. 
Mark's Church the pastor, Rev. Dr. J. B. Remensnyder, 
who is also president of the Lutheran Synod of New 
York, delivering a sermon, in the course of which he said: 

" Our first thought in this dreadful calamity should 
be for the sufferers. Pity for those who were lost, grati- 
tude to God that they were Christian people, and trust 
that they were not unprepared for the instantaneous leap 
into eternity. Practical sympathy and charity to those 
who survive, pra^^ers for the orphans that God will raise 
up friends and helpers for them. Prayers for all that 
their wounds may be gently bound up and their grief 
assuaged by a Heavenly hand. And then we should 
take to our heart this lesson of our text, ' Surely there is 
but a step between us and death.' " 

SOLEMN MEMORIAL SERVICE. 

In the Middle Dutch Church, Second avenue, near 
Sixth street, from among whose members or their rela- 
tives seventy-three were lost in the "Slocum" disaster, 
the morning's service was made a memorial for the 
victims. 

Before attending the service the pastor. Rev. John 
C. Fagg, officiated at a number of funerals in the neigh- 
borhood, being assisted in the melancholy task by Rev. 
Alfred Myers, of the Marble Collegiate Church ; Rev. 
E. G. W. Meury, of the Knox Memorial Church, and 
Rev. Edward Niles, of the Dutch Reformed Church of 
Bushwick, L. I. 



142 THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 

There was no prelude on the pipe organ, and the 
usual anthem by the choir was omitted, the choir singing 
softly the hymn, "A Few More Years Shall Roll." 

Before beginning his sermon the pastor read the 
names of those of the church who perished. From the 
Sunday school six were dead and five missing. From 
the Industrial School of the church ten were dead and 
three missing. FortA'-one children connected with the 
school went on the excursion, and of these twenty-four 
were lost. 

Rev. Mr. Fagg delivered a sermon of touching sym- 
pathy for those who went down in the wreck. 

CASE OF CRIMINAL FAULT. 

Rev. Merle St. Croix Wright, preaching at the 
Lenox Avenue Unitarian Church, on " Iuterpretati(ms 
of Providence in the Face of Disaster," said, in part: 

" It seems to be an issue between man and his 
Maker. But this is not entirely so. This has not been 
misfortune onh' ; the fault lies elsewhere. It is fault, 
abominable fault of a third part}'. Did the simple, inno- 
cent people who went to their destruction have any baud 
in it? Did God have a hand in it? Yes, He has in 
everthing. But the culpabilit}- lies with those who failed 
of their antecedent duty, who slacked and skimped what 
they should have done. 

" This thing was long gathering. It was not the 
work of an instant. We can find in this an indictment 
in which all are concerned to some extent, though not 
equally. Society is responsible at least through its 
agents and inspectors in view of the fact that it was 
necessary to be waked out of its miserable, sleepy negli- 
gence b}' an appalling horror." 



THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 143 

At the Little Cliurch Around the Corner Rev. Dr. 
Houghton asked for prayers for the victims of the dis- 
aster and their families. Rev. Dr. C. D. Case, of the 
Hanson Place Baptist Church, Brooklyn, said during the 
course of a sermon on the " Slocum " affair : 

"There never was a time when so much individual 
responsibility rested upon men. The complexity of civi- 
lization demands greater responsibility, and every man 
amounts to much in a crisis. There never was a time 
when we demanded so much unselfishness as now. 

ABSENCE OF ALL CONSCIENCE. 

" And there never was a time when society needed so 
much conscience in business. We wonder at times 
whether many a corporation does not do the least possible 
and not the most for the good of the people. If a cor- 
poration can prove that it simply obeyed the law, it feels 
morally free." 

Rev. Dr. Huntington, of Grace Church, in his sermon 
on the disaster, said : 

" It has been by such bitter experiences as this that 
we have learned of self-protection against the violence of 
nature. These poor sufferers have not died in vain if fol- 
lowing upon their dreadful pains there come better ship- 
building regulations, more rigid inspection of steam 
vessels and stricter discipline aboard vessels carrying 
human life." 

As a result of the loss of the " Slocum," Calvary 
Presbyterian Church, Fourth avenue and Twenty-first 
street, abandoned the excursion planned for July 20. 

"The first idea," said Superintendent Newton, "was 
of sympathy for the stricken congregation of St. Mark's 
Church. Then the committee felt unwilling to accept 



144 THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 

the great responsibilit}' iuvolved in taking children out 
in steamboats evidently not safe." 

By direction of Archbishop Farle}', masses for all 
those who lost their lives on the " Slocnm " were said in 
all the Catholic Churches in the city. On Wednesday a 
meeting of the vicar-generals throughout the Archdiocese 
was to be held with a view of adding to the relief fund for 
the benefit of the victims of the disaster. 

All day long enormous crowds thronged the Morgue. 
At one time it was estimated that full}^ ten thousand 
persons waited outside the building for a chance to view 
the bodies within. From North Brother Island thirty- 
eight bodies were brought to the pier at the end of P^ast 
Twenty-sixth street, and many of these were identified 
before they had been long in the building. 

SCENE IN TEMPORARY MORGUE. 

Nothing could have given a clearer impression of 
the vast extent of the catastrophe than the scene in the 
improvised Morgue. Although four da3-s had elapsed, 
the stream of friends and relatives looking for their dead 
was almost as great as on the first da3'S, while the crowd 
of morbidly curious visitors called forth was greater than 
has ever been seen on an occasion of any sort at the 
Morgue. 

It was believed b}' Dr. Darlington, of the Health 
Board, that fully 1,200 lives were lost on the "Slocum," 
and he feared that hundreds of these would never be re- 
covered. He pointed out that thirty-eight bodies brought 
to the Morgue had fallen into a depression ; he added 
that hundreds had uudoubtedl}' been swept awa^^ b}- the 
tide. 

"I am certain that fully as many bodies are strewn 




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UNKNOWN BABY DEAD WHEN FOUND FLOATING IN THE 
WATER BY THE MAN WHO HAS IT IN HIS ARMS. 




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GRACE GADE EVA SCHNEIDER 

405 EAST 5th ST., NEW YORK. LOST. 326 6th ST. N. Y. MOTHER LOST WITH H E R 





JULIA WORTMANN 

178 AVENUE A, NEW YORK. LOST. 



ANNIE BLUMENKRANZ 

LOST. WAS WITH MISS WORTMAN. 




LOTTIE LINK 

76 AVENUE A, NEW YORK. LOST- 




JULIA HECKART 

8a AVENUE A., NEW YORX. COST. 




ANNIE HECKART 

88 AVENUE A, NEW YORK. LOST. 



MAGGIE HECKART 

SAVED BIJT,,BApL^. BUfJNE^ 




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REV. GEO. C F. HAAS 

PASTOR ST. MARK'S EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH 




HENRIETTA AND HEDWIG TIMM 

211 EAST 5th ST. NEW YORK. 




MISS LOUISE HEINZ 

97 AVENUE A, NEW YORK. MISSING. 




HENRY SEIGWART, 225 EAST FIFTH ST., NEW YORK 

AND HIS TWO DAUGHTERS WHO WERE DROWNED-- AGES 6AND9YEARS 




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FIVE VICTIMS OF THE DISASTER IN ONE HOUSE AS INDICATED 
BY THE FIVE PIECES OF CRAPE ON THE DOOR. 



THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. lib 

along the bottom of tlie river," lie said. "So far we liave 
recovered only those that fell or were thrown into the 
water while the boat v/as moving and that the falling of 
the hurricane deck and the breaking of the after deck 
rail precipitated into the river all in that part of the 
boat. 

"Many of the women and children who were thrown 
into the river while the boat was rushing for Ricker's 
Island, were clad in heavy clothes, and their bodies will 
not come to the surface for several days yet. Until the 
river and Sound begin to give up their dead we can have 
no adequate idea of the total loss, and even then only a 
comparatively small part of the total number will be re- 
covered. 

GONE, WITH NONE TO MOURN. 

"It must also be remembered that at least a hundred 
of those will never be reported. They have dropped out 
of sight with none to mourn them or to report them as 
missing. They are the girls who have been in this 
country but a short time who were living as domestics, 
occupying furnished rooms, and with no close personal 
friendships. In man}^ cases husbands and wives with 
no children, living alone in furnished rooms, have also 
disappeared, and no report has been made of their ab- 
sence." 

Divers were finding bodies in all parts of the wreck, 
and the full extent of the horror was just beginning to 
be appreciated. 

The crowd at the pier began to gather before the 
doors were opened at 6 o'clock in the morning. Toward 
noon the report reached the Morgue that sixteen more 
bodies had been recovered and the crowd waited outside 

N.Y. 10 



116 THE PULPITS RING \\ITH INDIGNATION. 

until tliesc bodies reached the pier at 2 o'clock in the 
afternoon, and the long procession again moved throngli 
the doors in the same dreary parade. Some waited until 
nearly eight o'clock when the "Fidelity" arrived, bring- 
ing twentj^-two coffined corpses. 

At one time 10,000 gathered outside the IVIorgue, 
while at least 3,000 are believed to have been in the 
building in one body. Several of the men who had been 
haunting the place had become mentally unbalanced, and 
it was believed in their grief and intense suffering had 
made false identifications, although fully convinced that 
they had at last recovered the bodies of their lost ones. 

INSANE THROUGH GRIEF. 

Several affecting scenes marked the identifications. 
Charles Timm, who went temporarily insane through 
grief, was one of the first at the Morgue, and when told 
he would have to take his place in line became violent 
and attacked the policeman who tried to keep him out. 
The captain of the precinct, who was personally in charge 
of the police on guard at the Morgue, recognized him as 
a man who had lost his entire famil}- and gave him a card 
admitting him to the pier at au}^ time ahead of all others. 
A policeman was also detailed to accompany him. He 
identified among the bodies that of his daughter Hedwig, 
eleven 3'ears old, and became frantic with grief when he 
.saw her. His wife and two other children were still miss- 
ing. 

Gustave Burfiend, whose entire family in a party 
often died in the disaster of Wednesday, also became 
mentall}^ deranged while examining the bodies in the 
Morgue and a policeman was also detailed to accompau}'- 
him. 



THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 147 

Alfonse Ebeling also gave way to his despair to an 
extent that left him insane during the greater part of 
the day until he found the body of his wife Emma. 
When he identified her body from the jewelry taken 
from it he fell headlong across the coffin in a dead faint 
and nearly an hour was required to bring him back to 
consciousness. 

His screams when he finally recognized his wife 
shocked a number of women into hysteria, and the 
Morgue officials began to realize that now that the over- 
strained nerves of the seekers of the dead had begun to 
give way their work would be much harder than before. 

CAPTAIN'S SWORN STATEMENT. 

In the following sworn statement of Captain Wil- 
liam Van Schaick he declares that those in the pilot 
house first learned of the fire when the " Slocum " was 
half wa}^ between the Sunken Meadows buoy and North 
Brother Island. The total distance is fourteen city 
blocks between these points. 

Assistant Pilot Weaver pointed out to the officials a 
point one city block north of the buoy as the place the 
boat was when the danger signal came. 

To the United States Local Inspectors of Steam 
Vessels, Gentlemen : 

I hereby report that upon the 15th day of June, at 
about 9.33 A. M., I left East Third street, East River, 
with the steamer "General Slocum," of which I am 
master, bound for Locust Grove, Long Island. 

I am informed that the ticket indicator showed that 
there were 982 adult persons on board the "General 
Slocum." Besides the adult persons were four or five 
hundred children, under the age of twelve years. 



148 THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 

The " General Slocum," I am informed, was char- 
tered b}' the St. Mark's Lutheran Church Society, and 
that and the Sunday school connected with the church, 
and their friends were aboard. 

Locust Grove is on Huntington Bay about forty 
miles from New York. 

The wind was southeast, moderate breeze and a flood 
tide. 

After leaving the above pier the course of the 
" General Slocum " was shaped up the East River to the 
westward of Blackwell's Island. 

The first and second pilot and myself were in the 
pilot house ; the mate was below, on the main deck. All 
the members of the crew were on board. The '' General 
Slocum " carries a crew of twenty-three, besides the two 
police officers who were on board, and who usually attend 
excursions of this kind. 

BOAT WAS ON FIRE. 

Nothing unusual occurred until the "Slocum" was 
nearly half way between the red buoy, upon the southerly 
side of the reef known as Sunken Meadows, and North 
Brother Island, when the mate informed me through the 
speaking tube that the boat was on fire. 

At this time the "Slocum" was making about 
twelve knots through the water, and on account of a 
flood tide was making probabl}'- fifton miles over the land. 
Immediatcl}^ I conferred with the two pilots, relative to 
what course we should pursue under the circumstances. 
As we were heading for North Brother Island we agreed 
that the best and only course to pursue was to beach her 
on the north side of North Brother Island. 

I gave orders to Mr. Van Wart, the first pilot, to 



THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 149 

hold his course, as he was going directly for the beach, 
and I left the pilot house to go downstairs and investi- 
gate the fire. 

Immediately upon receiving word through the tube 
^ that there was a fire below the first pilot gave the fire 
signal, summoning all the crew to the regular stations, 
and immediately after giving the fire signals, alarm sig- 
nals also were given by the second pilot, by the whistle 
of the " General Slocum." 

INTENSE EXCITEMENT AND PANIC, 

On the promenade deck I found the whole forward 
part of the *' Slocum" afire, and found it impossible to 
go there or any further in that direction, toward the main 
deck. There was intense excitement and a great panic 
among all the passengers, and I saw that the only course 
that was left was to beach the boat as soon as possible, 
in order that the passengers might escape to the shore, 
and so went back immediately to the pilot house to see 
that the boat was put in the best possible shape upon the 
shore for the escape of the passengers. 

When the " General Slocum " reached a point abreast 
of the North Brother Island dock a slow bell was given 
and then a bell to stop, and she grounded immedi- 
ately after. Just to the eastward of the North Brother 
Island dock there is a beach, free of any large rocks, 
which would permit the "Slocum " to get close to the 
shore. The "Slocum" grounded sideways to the shore. 

At this time the hurricane deck had fallen in, about 
midships, and the whole boat was entirely ablaze, with 
the exception of some distance from the stem toward the 
forward gangway, as near as I could observe. 

The pilot house was so hot it was impossible to re- 



160 TH1-. I^ULHIS RINC, WITH INDIGNATION. 

main iu there, and the first and second pilots jnmped out 
of the windows on the starboard side and rnshed forward 
to the bow of the boat on the starboard side and jnmped 
into the water. 

I jnmped overboard from the hnrricane deck, on the 
starboard side, through the flames and got ashore. 

I am informed that of the crew one fireman, the 
steward, Michael McGran, and the barkeeper were lost. 

Dnriug the Spring the " General Slocnm " was put 
iu first-class condition, and, in my judgment, was in every 
way seaworthy ; the bottom had been recaulked, the decks 
recaulked, new life preservers had been put aboard ; all 
the life preservers had been overhauled and put in good 
condition. The boats and life rafts likewise were in good 
condition. 

A great many lives were lost, how niau}^ it is im- 
possible for me to say. I am disabled at the Lebanon 
Hospital, and have been unable to make any investiga- 
tion as to the origin of the fire, or as to the number of 
persons that have lost their lives. 

I am informed that immediately after the discovery 
of the fire streams of water were played upon the fire, 
without success. The fire hose upon the " General Slo- 
cnm" was good, of first quality, and some of it was pur- 
chased this Spring. 

Whatever aid it is within my power to render to you 
in your investigation of this calamity I will render 
willingl3\ 

Respectfull}' submitted, 
W. II. Van Schaick. Master. 

Sworn to before me this iSth day of June, 1904. 

J. K. Symmhrs, 
Notary Public, New York County. 



THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 151 

Edward Van Wart, the first pilot of the steamer 
*' General vSlocuiii," states that he has read the above 
statement of Captain William H. Van Schaick, and 
knows of his own knowledge the facts therein stated to 
be trne, except those stated to have occurred during the 
absence from the pilot house of Captain Van Schaick. 

Edward Van Wart. 

Sworn to before me this i8th day of June, 1904. 

J. K. SymmeRvS, 
Notary Public, New York County. 

PVom the depths of the water off North Brother 
Island there was drawn by a grappling hook a section of 
the upper railing of the "General Slocum," thirty feet in 
length, to which four women were clinging, their fingers 
gripping the interlaced wire roping between the upper 
and lower brace bars of the rail proper. 

RAILING SNAPPED AND FELL. 

These women, just before the steamer was beached, 
were clinging to the railing, and a sudden surge of the 
crowd, caused by a spurt of flame, forced the railing to 
bend outward and then with a snap fall into the w^ater. 

Holding desperately to the netting, the women were 
carried down into the water and drowned with scarcely a 
struggle. Survivors of the wreck have told how in the 
excitement of the fire the upper railing of the steamer 
gave way and 100 were precipitated into the water. 

The work of the recovery of bodies commenced at 6 
o'clock. In an hour thirteen bodies had been found. Of 
the thirteen there was one man, six women, two boys 
three girls and one baby. Three of these bodies were 
found floating. 



152 THK PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 

Locked ill each other's arms and telling a story 
extremely pathetic a woman of thirty and a girl of eleven 
years were brought up to the surface of the water by 
George Start. Soon his line became taut again and 
when he pulled it up he found the bodies of a boy nine 
years old and a girl of eight in each other's arms. 

From eleven o'clock to four o'clock twenty-three 
bodies were recovered, making a total for Sunday up to 
that hour of thirty-six. 

Nine more bodies were found by nightfall, making 
the total for the day forty-five. Three bodies were found 
in the wreck by divers. They were the bodies of a 
woman, a girl and a boy, all burned beyond recognition. 
From their investigations the divers were able to state 
positively that there were many more bodies in the wreck. 

CROWDED ON SHORE SIDE. 

Nineteen bodies were found on the beach running 
from the island down to the channel. 

The finding- of the railing of the boat, with bodies 
attached, so far inshore, pointed out the fact that the 
people had crowded on the shore side of the boat. S. I. 
Berg, who was working the improvised grapple, said that 
when he first saw the white railing coining up he was 
preparing to release it, thinking that it was simply a 
piece of driftwood. 

Just before sunset the crew of the four-oared barge 
of the Metropolitan Rowing Club, near Riker's Island, 
found a body. A passing launch took the rowing boat in 
tow and the body in turn was pulled along by a line from 
the boat. Tlie strange procession attracted much atten- 
tion on the way to North Brother Island. 

The body was that of a woman between forty and 



THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 153 

forty-five years of age. A diamond breastpin and four 
rings were on the body. 

All day long the river was crowded with excursion 
steamers, boats and launches filled with curious people. 

On Sunday for the first time the big steamers passing 
up the river slowed down and the divers underneath the 
water were able to work without danger to their lives. 
William B. Leeds' big steam j^acht went by at a snail's 
pace, with flag lowered at half mast. Karly in the day, 
however, the 3^acht "Helenita" went by without any appar- 
ent slackening of speed. 

In the basement of St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 
since the edifice was erected in 1847, there has been con- 
ducted a primary school and kindergarten for the young 
children of the parish. John Holthusen has been princi- 
pal of the school for the last twenty-seven years. He 
taught the upper class, while an assistant had charge of 
the kindergarten. Being fifty-eight years old, he decided, 
a few months ago, that he would retire at the end of the 
present school year. He went on the ill-fated excursion 
of the church, intending that the trip should end his 
career as an official of the parish. 

SCHOOL BLOTTED OUT, 

"There is no need for me to resign now," said the 
veteran schoolmaster that night at his home. "My school 
is no more. I had thirty-one pupils on the roll of the 
upper class, and the average attendance was about twenty- 
five. Nineteen of my boys and girls are dead. In the 
kindergarten we had twenty-six little children, and 
and nearly all of them 1 perished in the wreck of the 
* General Slocum.' 

" The two classes comprised all the young children 



154 thp: pulm is ring with indignation. 

of the parish, and there are none to take their places. 
The school is dead, and I am afraid the church itself will 
be wiped out." 

A leading journal discussed the disaster as follows : 
" In hundreds of churches echoes of the ' General 
Slocum ' disaster will be heard. Alan}^ preachers will 
make it the basis of their sermons, while others will be 
quick to use its obvious lessons. In most worshiping 
congregations prayers will be made for the bereaved. 
One consideration which makes Christian people pecu- 
liarly S3-mpathetic is that the victims of the terrible acci- 
dent were representing a church when overtaken by the 
dread calamit3^ 

WHY GOD PERMITTED IT. 

"This horror, with its slaughter of innocent babes, 
prattling children and defenseless women, has stirred 
many questionings in people's minds. ' Why did God 
permit such an awful fate to befall this light-hearted 
company of His friends?' men and women are asked one 
another. Some are writing the same query to news- 
papers. Divine accountability is undoubtedl}^ troubling 
many. A visitation upon offenders against moral prin- 
ciples would be more easily explicable, but this causes an 
undefined feeling of reproach against the Infinite to spring 
up in many hearts. These dead were the professed friends 
and followers of the Almighty ; why, then, did He not 
guard them from harm ? 

"The question is one with the great riddle of life. 
Philosophers have wrestled for centuries over the prob- 
lem of the existence of evil. About the nearest they 
have come to the solution is tliat human quality is more 
desirable than human comfort. It is better to have a race 



THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 155 

of men made strong by self-dependence and courageous 
conflict witti evil than to have one composed of character- 
less creatures safe from struggle. Man's sin and man's 
blunders are the price he pays for his manhood. 

" It seems a terrible thing that by the incompetence, 
carelessness or cowardice of a few men the lives of hun- 
dreds should be sacrificed. Yet only thus can men learn 
the lesson of responsibility. Fearful as is the price paid 
for man's independence, the latter is worth the price. 
HEAD YIELDS TO THE HEART. 

"But the present concern is not to find a solution of 
the vexing problems presented by life's great tragedies. 
This is an hour when the head yields to the heart. The 
sorrows of the bereaved are not to be philosophized over, 
but to be comforted. And it is undeniable that the pres- 
ent calamity will have only the effect of turning the 
afflicted ones more trustingly to the consolations of 

religion. 

"The human heart, in all its deepest experiences, 
instinctively looks up to the Power beyond itself. St. 
Mark's Lutheran Church, New York, will be crowded with 
men and women whose search is not for light upon intel- 
lectual perplexities, but for balm for bruised and bleeding 
spirits. The ' Slocum ' disaster will not create infidels ; 
on the contrary, it will intensify the religious nature of 
the people most bereaved." 

Many and terrible as have been the tragedies attend- 
ing life at sea within the limits of recorded history, there 
have been few exceeding in horror that of the " General 
Slocum," which shocked the entire country. 

Some of the most famous marine disasters and loss 
of life are here recorded : 



156 THE PULPITS RING WITH INDIGNATION. 

Prince George, Apr. 13, 1758, 400; Royal George, 
Aug. 29, 1782, 600; Halsewell, Jan. 6, 1786, 386; La 
Tribune, Nov. 16, 1797, 300 ; Sceptre, Nov. 5, 1799, 291; 
Abergareiiiiy, Feb. 6, 1805, 300 ; Acenas, Oct. 23, 340; 
Athenian, Oct. 27, 1806, 374 ; Minotaur, Dec. 22, 1810, 
360; Saldanua, Dec. 4, 1811, 300; St. George, Defence, 
Hero, Dec. 24, 1811, 2000; Seahorse, Jan. 30, 1816, 365; 
Harpooner, Nov. 10, 1816, 200; Lady Sherbrooke, Aug. 
19,1831,273; Exmouth, Feb. 19, 1847, 240; Avenger, 
Dec. 20, 1847, 200; Royal Adelaide, Mar. 30, 1850, 400; 
Birkenhead, Feb. 26, 1852, 454 ; Anne Jane, Sept. 29, 
1853, 348; Tayleur, Jan. 20, 1854, 380; Favourite, Apr. 
29, 1854, 201; Lady Nugent, May, 1854,400; City of 
Glasgow, summer, 1854, 480; Arctic, summer, 1854, 562; 
John, May i, 1S55, 200 ; Pacific, 1856, 200 ; Le Lyonnais, 
1856,260; Central America, 1S57, 427; Austria, Sept. 
13, 1858, 475; Pomona, 1859, 400; Royal Charter, 1859, 
446; Hungarian, i860, 206; Anglo-Saxon, Apr. 27, 
1863, 237 ; London, Jan. 11, 1868, 220 ; Cambria, 1870, 
296 ; Northfleet, Jan. 22, 1873, 300 ; Halifax, 1873, 564 ; 
Atlantic, Apr. 18, 1873, 560; Ville de Houre, 1873, 230; 
Cospatrick, Dec. 6, 1874, 471 ; Great Queensland, Aug. 
1876, 569 ; Eurydice, Mar. 24, 1878, 300 ; Princess Alice, 
Sept. 3, 1878, 600; \^ictoria. May 24, 1881, 300; Teuton, 
Aug. 30, 1881, 200; Kapunda, Mar. 29, 1887, 293; 
Shanghai, Dec. 25, 1890, 300; Cit}^ of Columbus, 1884, 
100; Cimbria, 1883, 421 ; Utopia, Mar. 1891, 564; Nam- 
chow, Jan. 14, 1891, 509; Narouic, 1893, 93; H. M. S. 
Victoria, June 23, 1893, 400: Elbe, Jan. 1895, 380; La 
Bourgoyne, July 4, 1898, 550; Portland, Nov. 27, 1898, 
129; Stella, Mar. 30, 1899, 75 ; General Slocum, June 
15, 1904, more than looo. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 

DEEDS of heroism and devotion by the hundred fol- 
lowed upon the disaster. Of the few hundred who 
were saved most owed their preservation to the courage 
of unselfish men and women. Boys and girls scarcely 
more than children themselves bore their parts nobly, as 
witness the youthful apprentice who saved twenty-two 
lives and the nurse girl intrusted with two babes who 
swam for the first time in her life and brought her 
charges safely to the shore. 

Hell Gate had a Jim Bludso of its own, who risked 
his life and all that he had, a smoky little tug. 

There were experienced pilots and captains who 
went about the work of rescue like trained life savers ; 
firemen leaped into the waters in their heavy clothing 
and policemen from stations far and near rowed in what- 
ever boats they could find to help in the work of rescue. 
Heroes in every walk of life may be found on the roll, 
and the record of the darkest day in the history of New 
York harbor is brightened by golden letters which tell of 
high courage and supreme devotion. 

Twenty-two lives saved is written opposite the 
name of Charles Schwartz, Jr., machinist's apprentice, 
eighteen years old. His rescues were performed, too, 
with a breaking heart, for he knew that while he was aid- 
ing others his mother and grandmother were lying dead 
on the beach of North Brother Island. 

Schwartz is light of frame, yet his skill in swimming 
has made him well known throughout the East Side. 

157 



168 HEROICS SAM-: MANY LIVi:S. 

"There was not much time to thiuk," said he, "and 
as soon as I saw what was up I did what I could. I was 
on the hurricane deck of the ' General Slocum ' and when 
I knew that there was a fire the first thing I did was to 
put a life preserver around my little brother Louis, who 
is ten years old, and I got him to stand by me. Then I 
saw that there was going to be a panic and I thought that 
in the water was the best chance for him, so I threw him 
overboard. Louis is all right. 

" I made a trip down below to see if I could be of 
any help, but I saw that the fire was beyond control and 
that nobody would work in any kind of system. I noticed 
that two or three boats were coming, and I backed up 
against the rail calling out that there was a good chance 
and pleading with the passengers to keep cool and not 
shove. The rail went, though, and I tumbled over back- 
ward into the water. 

LOST MOTHER AND GRANDMOTHER. 

" The first person that I saw was Mrs. Addicks, who 
keeps a candy store, and she called me b}- name and I 
went over and helped her b}^ keeping her chin above 
water and towering her a little. She got to shore all 
right and was not much hurt. She threw her arms 
around m}^ neck and kissed me. I got into the water 
again and helped IMiss Emma Haas, the sister of the 
pastor, until a boat came to take her, and then I saw m}' 
mother and grandmother. The}' were floating fiice down- 
ward. I got them both ashore and helped the doctors 
with them on the lawn. ' It's no use,' said the doctors 
'we can't do anything for your people, my bo}'.' 

"I felt as though my heart would break, and then 
I looked out upon the water and saw that there were yet 



HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 159 

men, women and children wlio might be saved. A man 
came along- in a little boat and I swam out to him and 
worked with him. I went overboard whenever I could 
and swam up with people and helped them into the boat. 
Many of them grabbed at me, but I was able to keep off 
enough to prevent being dragged down. I felt hands 
way down in the water holding at my feet. Hands 
caught me everywhere, and above me was the fire ragmg 
and roaring. I wish that I had been stronger and could 

have done more. 

" The stranger in the boat and I brought four or five 
ashore at a time and took them upon the beach. I had 
my clothes off and was able to swim easily, for I kept as 
cool as I could and saved my strength. I learned to 
swim in the public baths, and if it had not been for the 
practice that I got there I would not have been able to 
do anything. 

BOY SAVED TWENTY-TWO. 

"We brought ashore many bodies, too, and not until 
there was no chance of saving anybody did I quit. 
Counting those I either got into the boat or swam out 
for I saved twenty-two. If I had been a stronger fellow 
I might have done a good deal more, but I'm light. I 
weigh only 123 stripped. Rather too light, don't you 

think ? 

" Hero ? Oh, I'm nothing like that. I happened to 
have the knack of swimming a little better than some 
other persons and so I thought it was my duty to do the 
best I could. Besides, I'm not thinking much of that 
kind of thing with my mother and grandmother lying 
there in the room. I did all I could for them, but the 



KiO HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 

smoke must liave suffocated them before they were in 
the water. 

Another medal which will serve as a companion 
piece to the one received last year will perhaps be 
awarded to Fireman Joseph J. Alooney, who nearly lost 
his life in saving a woman. 

Mooney attracted the attention of the public on 
June 6, 1903, when he received the William L. Strong 
gold medal for saving the life of a little girl, Gertrude 
Schwenneger, at a lire at IMadison avenue and Sixtieth 
street. Mayor low presented the medal while the child 
stood b}^ the side of the gallant fireman. 

MOONEY'S VALIANT EFFORT. 

Mooney was transferred to the fireboat " Zophar 
Mills," and when she steamed up into the East River, 
dotted with the drowning, Mooney could not devote his 
energies to using lines and boat hooks. He went into 
the water and brought two women to the side of the 
"Zophar Mills." 

In effecting the rescue of the third woman, who 
weighed two hundred pounds and was all the more un- 
manageable on account of her heavy, water-soaked cloth- 
ing. Mooney made a valiant effort to reach the side of 
the fireboat. His plight was noticed by the other fire- 
men, who threw a rope to him. Mooney had strength 
enough to hold it and was drawn over the side of the 
vessel. 

Restoratives were administered both to the woman 
and her rescuer. Mooney was able in the course of a few 
minutes to resume his duties, but he did not again ven- 
ture into the water. George Lawlor, another fireman, 
saved a woman by swimming after her. Only four living 



HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 161 

persons were taken on board the "Zophar Mills." There 
were seventeen dead bodies on her deck. 

Firemen attached to Bronx fire companies took an 
active part in saving the drowning, and many cases were 
reported of their leaping into the water without removing 
any clothing, so eager were they to be of assistance. 
Policemen from all stations aided in the rescue when the 
opportunity offered and many of them rowed out to the 
vessel in whatever boats they could obtain. 

Efficient service was rendered by the charities boat 
the^Massasoit," of which Captain Frederick W. Parkinson 
is the commander. The captain was trained under his 
uncle. Captain Henry Rick, a veteran Hell Gate pilot. 
Not only did he direct the work of rescue from his post, 
where it was so hot from the flames of the burning wreck 
that it was almost impossible to remain there, but he 
helped bring the helpless aboard when opportunity 
offered. Whenever he could leave the wheel he sat in the 
loop of rope swung overtheside of the "Massasoit," aiding 
in drawing up those who were struggling in the water. 

PLAYED HOSE ON HIM. 

The captain speaks in terms of highest praise of the 
conduct of his crew, mentioning especially his mate, 
James J. Duane, and Albert Rappaport. Duane went out 
in the lifeboat to within a few feet of the burning "Slo- 
cum" and was able to work because the captain ordered 
hose to be constantly played on him. He brought in ten 
persons in all. He was in constant danger, owing to the 
possibility of portions of the burning superstructure 
falling upon him. 

Rappaport went over the side of the *' Massasoit" 
and at great personal risk saved seven persons. He 

N.Y. U 



1<;2 HEROES SAVK MANY LIVKS. 

brouglit them to the side of the steamboat aud the}' were 
lifted al)oard by the engineer aud deck hands. 

''The first one I got/' said Rappaport, "was a bo}- 
who clung to me after I got back ou board, begging that 
I would not leave him. He said he did not know where 
to go as his mother was drowned. 

" I was clad only in underclothes, and in a struggle 
to save another boy about thirteen 3^ears of age my cloth- 
ing fell about my feet and it was with great difficulty 
that I was al)le to get within reach of a heaving line." 

HER FIGHT WITH FIRE. 

Everywhere on the "Massasoit" were the evidences of 
her fight with fire. The paint on the upper works of the 
vessel was sadly blistered and the windows of the pilot 
house cracked. The " Massasoit " saved in all forty 
persons. 

No account of the work of rescue can be complete 
without the story of the deeds done by the modest cap- 
tain of the ''Franklin Edson." Not content with directing 
the efforts of his crew while he stood in a scorching pilot 
house, he went overboard after a woman and nearl}^ lost 
his life in doing so. Henry Rick is his name, and for 
thirty years he has held a pilot's license. All of that 
time has been spent in the service of the city, either in 
the Health Department or the Department of Charities. 
The captain is now fifty-eight years old, but he looks 
like a man of forty-five. 

" It is difficult to tell what to do iu such an emer- 
gency as that which confronted us iu the "Slocum" dis- 
aster," he said. " I had just left the ''Edson," which had 
come in at the Board of Health pier at I32d street, when 
I heard five whistles from my boat. I was down there iu 



HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 163 

a moment, and as I was going across to the "Slocum" 
the engineer yelled up the tube that he had water in 
three lines of hose. We soon saw that water wasn't 
needed, but quick work to save lives. Everything in the 
way of the life-preservers we had went overboard and 
then the heaving lines. 

"Fifty feet was as near as I thought it safe to go, 
for although the windows of the pilot house were down 
in their frames I could hear them cracking and the paint 
was blistering on the woodwork. 

DIED AFTER DRAWN FROM WATER. 

" It was hard work in many cases, for there were 
several large and heavy women, whose weight was in- 
creased by their water-soaked garments. We got all 
those who came our way. Some may think that we 
ought to have taken the rescued ashore right away for 
medical attention, but I considered it best to save as 
many as we could. I think that we got about twenty- 
five in all. As to how many lived, I don't know yet ; 
ten I am certain of, anyway. Six died after we got them 
aboard, although we did what we could to revive them. 
My crew did splendid work." 

" How about the woman for whom you went over- 
board?" 

'' She was dead when I got her aboard, as near as I 
can make out. Too bad. I was rather tired out by the 
time she was landed, but I think that she had been suffo- 
cated before she got into the water. What I was able to 
do was no more than any city employee should gladly 
do. I don't want any rewards or any medals. I am too 
old for that kind of thing. Once, when I was young 
maybe, I thought of fame, but with the city's boats 



164 HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 

the picking up of persons in distress is part of the 
business." 

Many were the expedients which quick-witted res- 
cuers had to bring into play in order to save the panic- 
stricken passengers on the "Slocum." Policeman 
Hubert C. Farrell, who saved eight persons, is a subject 
of a report to police headquarters. He is attached to the 
Alexander avenue station. 

Farrell and James Collins, a special policeman, 
obtained the yawl of the schooner " Bayliss," which was 
at the foot of East 137th street. Olaf Janseu and Samuel 
Patchen. the negro steward, went in the boat with them 
to the burning wreck. They found several persons hang- 
ing to the paddle wheel. 

NEAR A FURNACE OF FLAME. 

"I will never forget that sight," said Farrell, "for 
above us was a furnace of flame. There were passengers 
who had been leaning against the paddle box on the 
upper part who began to fall off as the fire ate through 
at their backs. Above us was the fire, and the heat was 
so intense that we could scarcely remain there. 

" Clinging to one of the paddles I saw an old man 
whose head was just above water. I could see that his 
life was almost gone. On either shoulder was a little 
child. They were clinging to his neck. I got out into 
the paddle wheel, finding a footing in the paddles, and 
standing in that way up to my waist in water I leaned 
forward and first took one child and then the other into 
the boat. The old man could not be drawn up as I had 
done with the children. I braced myself with my feet 
and grabbed him by the collar. Then with a quick 
movement I dislodged his hands. He fought and strug- 



HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 165 

gled with all his feeble strength. I believe that he 
thought I was trying to drown him. Down he went 
under the water. Then I got him up through the wheel 
and he was placed in the boat. 

" It was hotter about that wreck than I ever believed 
it possible to be." 

Women on North Brother Island, matron, nurses, a 
telephone operator, patients, helpers, performed many 
acts of heroism and daring. The sight of helpless babies 
in the stream nerved them wdth almost superhuman 
strength. Several who could not swim at all learned how 
that day for the first time, so intent were they on errands 
of mercy. 

None took a more active part in the work of rescue 
than did Pauline Pelz, who was in the employ of Dr. 
Watson, one of the physicians on the island. She di- 
vested herself of her outer skirt and shoes and swam out 
to the vessel. It seemed as if she had the strength of 
ten. She made five trips into the water, returning each 
time with a woman or a child. She started to go a 
sixth time, but was so weak from her exertions that 
she found it impossible to leave the beach, and was com- 
pelled to give up, 

GIRL A GOOD SWIMMER. 

Miss Lulu McGibbon, a telephone operator, after she 
had been relieved from her duties in the administration 
building on the island hurried down to the beach. She 
swam out twice to the vessel and brought back on each 
trip a child. One of the babies was about a year and a 
half old and the other about three years of age, 

"I often go bathing in the summer time off the 
island," said she, "and the nurses are also accustomed 



166 HKRor.S S.WI'. MANY I.IVES. 

to swimming. That gave iis some practice for siicli an 
emergency as this." 

Several of the nurses clad in their white uniforms 
waded out into the water or assisted in placing ladders 
and poles within reach of the passengers of the "Slocum," 
and saved many lives. 

One of the most remarkable instances of the power 
of devotion to duty over bodily fear is the act of Louise 
Gailing, a nurse girl from Nutley, N, J., who was on the 
excursion with two babies, one two years old and the 
other three, the daughters of Mrs. Erkling, of Hoboken. 

NEVER SWAM BEFORE. 

" I had no thought," said she, "of what might hap- 
pen to me. I had never swum a stroke in my life, and 
I didn't know the slightest thing about how I should 
begin. I only knew one thing, and that was that I must 
save the babies. So I took one in each arm and jumped 
overboard and kicked out with my feet, and held them 
up as best I could. I did not care whether I could swim 
or not. I only knew that if I didn't, I would not save 
the children. I struggled on through the water and got 
to the shore. I didn't know how, and I guess I never 
will, but I saved the babies." 

No story of the "Slocum'' disaster is complete with- 
out that of the Unknown Hero who was everywhere. 
The roll of those who did the best they could under 
circumstances which made it impossible to do what they 
would is a loug one. Tugboat men speak of a man who 
was seen struggling near the shore of North Brother 
Island with three women clinging to him. He had a 
life pre.ser\'er, and he was doing all that he could to keep 
those who clung to him afloat. As he was uearing the 



HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 167 

shore a fourth woman grabbed him and he slowly began 
to sink with his three charges. 

"Don't ! " he cried. "Don't. There isn't a chance 
for us if you do that. I can't swim." 

The woman increased her hold. 

"All right," he replied, " we'll do the best we can. 
We will all die together." They were picked up and 
brought to the shore. 

SAVED BY A GRIMY TUG. 

His act was on a par with the deeds of scores of others 
performed about the shores of North Brother Island on 
that day. There were men who released their hold on 
floating wreckage to give women a chance, and young 
girls who calmed themselves in the frenzy of fright to 
tear life preservers from their own bodies to bind them 
about babies whose cries touched their hearts in that 
awful hour. Many a wharf rat whose name will never 
be known did heroic work, and fishermen who came and 
went in light skiifs, leaving no record of valorous deeds, 
will not figure in the books of those who reward heroism 
with medals and with praise. 

He weren't no saint — them engineers 
Is all pretty much alike. 

Sanctity is not the strong card of James L. Wade, 
owner and engineer of the "Wade," the blackest and dirt- 
iest little tug in all the river, yet nearly a hundred per- 
sons, and more, would hail this man of grime, in overalls 
once blue, as an angel of light. 

He ran the savings of ten years, represented in his 
tug, ashore and used her as abridge for the "Slocum's" 

passengers. 

"Damn the tug ! " said he. " Let her bum ! " For, 



168 HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 

like Jim Bludso, Wade does not stop to pick language. 
'' Let her stay where she is. What's a tugboat to a 
human life ? " 

Wade goes up and down the East River something 
after the manner of a cruising cabman on land, doing 
odd maritime jobs here and there. He was at North 
Brother Island when he saw the "General Slocum" draw 
into view with a mass of fire shooting from her forward 
deck. He dived into the engine room and told the pilot 
of the little tug, Captain Fitzgerald, to make for the 
burning steamboat. 

BRIDGE THAT SAVED MANY. 

On the deck were Edward Carroll, better known as 
"Reddy," and Antonio Marcetti, otherwise "Tony." The 
"Wade" went to the starboard side of the "Slocum," get- 
ting in between the shore and the steamer. Her propel- 
ler was fouled by a rope, and manceuvring w^as out of 
the question. Wade ordered that she be run aground, 
and over this bridge seventy-eight persons found their 
way to safet}'. The heat blistered the sides of the deck- 
house of the tug and only by throwing water over the 
woodwork occasionally with buckets, was the pilot house 
saved from burning. 

Carroll and Marcetti spent little time aboard, for they 
■vrere in the w^ater most of the time. Carroll saved three 
old women, and Marcetti a girl. The Irishman was 
almost exhausted in bringing the third woman to the 
side of the tug, but he was finally pulled on board by the 
captain and the engineer. 

Not being able to use his lifeboat Wade presented it 
to the first volunteer life saver he saw. 

"That's a small matter," he said. "What does a 



HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 169 

man care for a little thing like a lifeboat ? Anybody 
who needed it was welcome. I didn't expect to be walk- 
ing about on this tug. I think that I'm lucky." 

Several well known lumber merchants were discuss- 
ing the raising of funds to repair the "Wade." Two 
women who were saved through the gallantry of Mr. 
Wade, Mrs. Elusca, and Mrs. Anna Sackman, wrote that 
they would like to see a fund started to replace the tug's 
lifeboat, life preservers and other fittings which they un- 
derstood were lost. 

They declared the owner remained at his post until 
the tug was nearly on fire and that his own arms were 
severely scorched. 

Captain Fitzgerald, who was in the pilot house of the 
"Wade," also did effective work at the Hoboken fire. The 
"Wade" was pulled off by the tug "Goldeu Rod" while 
the streams of water played by the fireboat "Zophar 
Mills" kept her from being destroyed. 

HE COURTED DEATH. 

Brief was the official record of John A. Scheuning, a 
policeman attached to the Alexander avenue station, who 
saved the lives of five. There is time, though, to go be- 
yond the plain tale of the blotter, and to relate how he 
risked his life aud courted death under the lee of the 
burning "Slocum." 

Scheuning saw the burning steamboat while on duty 
near the water front at 138th street. He commanded a 
soda water wagon, iu which he was driven to the foot of 
East 141st street, where he cut out a boat and pushed 
into the stream. The "Slocum" was swinging off North 
Brother Island a floating Tophet, and fanned by the off- 
shore wind the flames swept far out from the port side. 



170 HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 

Scheuiiing rowed directly toward the side of the 
steamer, altliougli the tugboatmeii called to him that he 
was going to his death. The heat was so intense when 
he came within a hundred feet of the vessel that he felt the 
skin blister on his face and hands. Burning brands fell 
about him, and dead ahead towered the paddle box, from 
which the flames were bursting as out of the top of a 
blast furnace. 

Scheuning stopped for a mouieut, and removing his 
blouse soaked it in the water. He threw the garment 
about his neck and shoulders, thus gaining protection 
from the heat. At the same time Scheuning kept his 
arms closely to his side as he rowed, so as to protect his 
body as much as possible from the glow of the fire. Above 
him the flames were swept out in a sheet which at any 
time might have been turned downward by a change of 
the wnnd, while the falling of blazing timbers were re- 
minders that at au}^ moment the structure above might 
crash down upon him. 

VOICES CALL FOR HELP. 

" There were five faces under that paddle box," said 
Scheuning in telling his story, "that told me that it was 
my duty to go in there. I heard voices calling out, 'Mr. 
Policeman, save us!' and I rowed rigLt up to it, al- 
though I felt my back blistering and had to stop and 
throw water over my back to keep from scorching. 
Once I got right up there, though, the heat wasn't so 
bad, although the way things were falling showed there 
was no time to be lost." 

Scheuning ran the small boat alongside the paddle 
box, which was well out of the water, and he was able by 
placing one foot in the boat and the other on a paddle to 



HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 171 

lift iuto the skiff five persons. They grasped the sides 
of the small boat at first and nearly swamped it, but 
Scheuning, by skilful balancing, was able to save three 
women and two men, whom he rowed in safety to a barge. 
Scheuning, *'in the line of police duty," then brought 
ashore thirteen bodies and devoted the rest of the day to 
assisting the Coroner in tagging 171 of the dead. His 
exploit of going so close to the "Slocum " was the cause 
of others venturing to the aid of the distressed, despite 
the intense heat. 

ONE OF THE CRE\A/' A HERO, 

Those v/ho have seen many brave deeds performed 
in the waters of New York Harbor say that the courage 
and devotion of at least one member of the crew of the 
" General Slocum " exceeded anything which they ever 
beheld. William R. Trembly was his name, and for a 
few weeks he had been a deckhand on the vessel. He 
was not accustomed to the water and he had back of him 
no experience in the harbor, such as had the veterans 
of the Hell Gate fleet that did such efficient service. 

"I've seen many courageous and devoted acts done 
in my time," said Captain Parkinson, of the " Mas- 
sasoit," in speaking of the conduct of the deckhand of 
the "Slocum," "but the way that man acted should 
entitle him to all the medals which may be coming 
his way. The first thing that I saw was his leap from 
the side of the ' Slocum ' right out of a nest of flames. 
He swam ashore again and again with women, and the 
way he saved his strength and the cool manner in 
which he acted were such as to win the admiration of 
every man who say him. 

" There wasn't much time either to watch others. 



172 HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 

His last exploit was to bring in three children at a time. 
How he did it I'm snre 1 don't know. He had two in his 
arms and a woman lowered a third to him. 

"He swam with one child in his teeth, steadying 
himself aud gowing slowly to save his strength. I could 
see that he was pretty nearl}' gone, and when I got 
another glimpse of him he was coming into the shore. 

FELL LIKE A DEAD MAN. 

"A woman clutched at him as he went past and he 
seemed to be saying something to her. He got the three 
children to safety and then I saw him staggering on the 
shore. The woman was still pleading. He was un- 
steady on his pins by that time and he barely had the 
strengtli to stand ; but he was still game. He started 
toward her; then his hands went up and he fell over 
backward on the beach like a dead man. He had worked 
to the very limit. I saw him afterward stretched out 
on the lawn on the North Brother Island and he was 
about as near a corpse as a man can well be and be 
alive." 

Trembly was then taken later to the Alexander ave- 
nue police station, where he told his storj^ and then went to 
sleep on the station house floor. 

He said that he heard the first outcry of fire and did 
all that he could to alia}' the panic. Finally, seeing that 
nothing more could be done, he placed life preservers 
about two children and started with them to the shore. 
A woman on the upper deck tore her skirts into strips 
and with the rope which she hastily improvised lowered 
her child to him, begging that he take it to shore. 

Children unable to reach life preservers above their 
heads and in many cases left without any older person 



HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 178 

near them were active in helping not only those younger 
than themselves but even went to the aid of their elders. 

There, for instance, was Peter Wingerter, a boy of 
thirteen. He found on the upper deck four babies which 
had been deserted by their parents. He remained on 
board the boat, although scores were dropping into the 
water all about him, and with his own hands passed the 
tv^o babies to the deck of a tugboat. 

Then, with two infants under his left arm the boy 
slid down a stanchion to the main deck, where he passed 
his charges to men in a rowboat. A woman threw her 
baby into the stream and the boy dived overboard after 
it. As he was going under the water a man v/ho sup- 
posed that the boy was drowning pulled him out. Win- 
gerter fought with his rescuer, who restrained him from 
again risking his life. 

SAVED THE LITTLE ONE. 

Then there is William McCaffrey, fourteen years 
old, who tossed a dazed girl aboard a tug and swam to the 
shore himself. On reaching North Brother Island he 
went out again into the water and rescued three exhausted 
men who were about to drown, in the shallows. 

Among children who are mentioned on the roll of 
honor which illumines a dark day of tragedy is Arthur 
Link. On the upper deck a frightened woman was about 
to leap into the water with her baby. 

''If you can't swim," said he, "give me that baby." 
She passed the child over to him and jumped. 

The boy placed the child on a camp chair, which he 
braced against a stanchion to keep the infant from being 
crushed. When he felt that the deck beneath his feet 
was giving way he tucked the baby under his arm and 



174 iii.Koi:.s SAvr: many lives. 

struck out for the shore, keeping himself afloat with one 
hand. 

His burden was too much for his strength and he 
was about to go under when a man in a skiff relieved him 
of the child. 

"Don't mind me," called the boy. " I can keep up 
all right. Take care of the bab}- ! " 

Two policemen of the Harbor Squad, Van Tassell 
and Kelk, who were trained under Elbert O. Smith, the 
present inspector, who was formerly in command of the 
marine department of the police force, did valorous work 
on the day of the '' Slocum " disaster. They had been 
detailed to look after the safety of passengers, and 
although the conditions were beyond all control, the}'' 
acted as though they were in command. 

PICKED UP UNCONSCIOUS. 

Van Tassell was disabled, and Kelk was among the 
last to leave the doomed vessel. The two men stood on 
the second deck. They are strong, and their muscles 
were well trained by rowing in the harbor. From their 
position the}'" threw women and children into the tugs 
which braved the danger and the blistering heat. Van 
Tassell was knocked unconscious when the hurricane 
deck fell, for the bod}^ of a woman struck him on the head. 

He was picked up unconscious from the stream by a 
mason employed on North Brother Island. As soon as 
he had recovered the use of his senses Van Tassell, who 
was in great pain owing to the bruising of the muscles of 
neck and head, returned to the work of rescue, and later 
helped in bringing in the dead. Kelk remained on board 
the "Slocum," although his hair was singed and his 
mustache was nearl}'^ burned from his lip. 



HEROES SAVE MANY LIVES. 176 

He lost no opportunity to give aid. He placed life- 
preservers upon children and threw them into the flood ; 
he directed the work of tugboatmen who approached the 
vessel and kept back the panic-stricken who tried to jump 
into the water when boats which were approaching to 
their aid were only a few feet away. Though the flames 
burned his clothing and blistered his skin, Kelk was as 
calm as though he were on parade. 

"As I was standing there," said Kelk, in speaking of 
the experience of the day, "a woman came rushing 
to me with her skirts in a blaze. There was a baby car- 
riage standing near, in which there was a heavy blanket. 
I seized the blanket, threw it around the woman and 
rolled her on the deck until the flames were extinguished. 
She jumped overboard then, and whether she was saved 
or not I do not know." That was only one incident which 
shows how quickly things were done on that day. 




CHAPTER IX. 
STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 

UNDER the guidance of au unlicensed first mate with 
avery hazy notion of his duties, members of the crew 
of the steamer "General Slocum " admitted hesitatingly 
that they had proved almost useless in the great disaster. 
They insisted that there had not been a fire drill on the 
boat this season and agreed that they had been unable to 
use the hose after the flames were discovered. 

There was some conflict about the reason that the 
hose would not work. Some of the men said it had burst 
when the water got to the kinks, but an explanation 
which was made for the first time in public was that no 
water at all could reach the fire hose on account of a false 
washer of solid rubber or leather placed in the standpipe 
that supplied it. The small rubber hose used for cleans- 
ing the decks was usuall}^ attached to hydrants on piers, 
but when this was not convenient salt water was obtained 
from the standpipes. 

To prevent any of this water from reaching the can- 
vas fire hose and rotting it the washer had been inserted. 
To get water into the fire hose would have involved un- 
fastening it first and removing the washer, an idea that 
did not seem to enter the heads of any of the men. 

These and other revelations were made at the inquest 
begun before Coroner Joseph I. Berry and a jury. Edward 
Flanagan, the mate, seemed dazed when he faced the 
crowd that had gathered, and he constantly avoided 
answering direct testimony by pleading that he did not 
remember. Assistant District Attorney Francis P. Gar- 
van, who examined him at length, wrung from him many 

176 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 177 

facts that would serve as a basis for future proceedings. 

Flanagan was mate of the " General Slocum" at tlie 
time of the official visit of the United States inspectors 
the month before. The inspection of the life-preservers, 
so far as it came under his personal observation, consisted 
of walking down the line and poking the canvas covers 
here and there with a cane or ruler. From ten to twenty 
of the preservers subjected to this test broke, and the 
inspector condemned them and directed that they be 
removed forthwith. 

Flanagan squirmed and faltered, but concluded by 
announcing that all the life-preservers that he had seen 
on the boat were stamped with the original date of 
inspection in 1891, the year that the "Slocum" was 
launched. 

FIRE STARTED IN FORWARD CABIN. 

The origin of the fire was placed definitely in the 
forward cabin where a miscellaneous lot of inflammable 
material was stored, including oil for the lanterns. Men 
sent to this place to look for materials were in the habit 
of lighting matches instead of taking lanterns. 

There was a wide divergence of opinion about the 
location of the " Slocum " at the time the captain was 
notified of the fire. 

Before questioning the mate and the deck hands 
Mr. Garvan had examined two of the officers of the 
Knickerbocker Steamship Company, Frank A. Barnaby, 
the president, and James K. Atkinson, the secretary. Mr. 
Barnaby said that before the " Slocum " had been put in 
commission this year he had given instructions to have 
her put in as fine condition as nossible and about $12,000 

had been spent. 

N.Y. 12 



178 STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 

He had beeu requested to briug to the inquest the 
company's books showing all expenditures for life sav- 
ing apparatus on the " Slocum." Instead of doing so 
he had had abstracts made from his ledger and had 
brought five original bills, running back to the spring 
of 1902, showing that the company had purchased 350 
life-preservers this year. 

Mr. Garvau's first glance at the bills led him to 
infer that an attempt had been made to alter them. 
They had been made out to the steamer " Grand Repub- 
lic ;" the ink of this name had been faded and " General 
Slocum " had been written above the name of the other 
boat. The papers indicated that some acid had been used. 

BARNABY'S WEAK EXPLANATION. 

Mr. Barnaby said he had received the bills in his 
office exactly as they then were. He explained that 
supplies for the two boats were ordered by the captain 
of the " Grand Republic" and were later charged sepa- 
rately on the company's books. ]\Ir. Atkinson could 
not give any additional information. 

Mr. Garvan announced that he wished to have the 
company's bookkeeper appear at once with the original 
ledgers. The promise was given that the bookkeeper 
would appear in the afternoon. It was shortly after 
twelve o'clock that this notice was given, but when an 
adjournment was taken at five o'clock the bookkeeper 
had not appeared with the books. 

'' It is very curious that the bookkeeper has not 
been able to get here in all this time," commented the 
Assistant District Attorney to the Coroner. " I was 
particularly anxious to have the books marked in evi- 
dence to-dav." 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 179 

Mr. Barnaby was the first witness. After lie had 
beeu sworn Mr. Gar van asked the Coroner to exclnde 
from the conrt all v/itnesses except injured passengers 
and relatives of those who lost their lives. The motion 
was granted, and half of the men who had been present 
moved into a rear room, leaving most of the seats to 
women and children clad in deep mourning, many of 
them with bandages about their heads to cover in- 
juries. 

Mr. Barnaby said he had been President of the 
Knickerbocker compau}^ for twenty 5^ears. The company 
owned the " Grand Republic," built about twenty years 
ago, and the " General Slocum," built in Brooklyn in 
1891. Mr. Barnaby was a stockholder when the "Slo- 
cum" was built, and he became a director about ten j^ears 
before, but took no active part in the management until 
he was made president. 

THE CAPTAIN A STOCKHOLDER. 

He and Mr. Atkinson conduct the executive depart- 
ment of the business. Mr. Atkinson has charge of the 
traf&c department, and Captain John Pease, of the "Grand 
Republic," is at the head of the operating department. 
Under the system bills go to Captain Pease, who passes 
on them and forwards them to the office. Captain 
Pease is a stockholder and owns some of the company's 
bonds. 

The "Slocum" was put in commission in 1904 on 
May 6 or 7. Mr. Barnaby did not make any examina- 
tion of her before that time, nor had he been aboard of 
her since then. It was Captain Pease who made the ap- 
plication for inspection. He had not said anything to 
Mr. Barnaby specially about either the life preservers or 



180 STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST, 

the fire liose, but the president had beeu informed gener- 
ally that the " Slocum " was in a better condition than last 
3'ear and was in as good condition as when she was built. 
All that Mr. Baruaby knew about the lifeboats was what 
the inspectors had reported. 

Edward Flanagan, the mate, was kept on the witness 
stand during the greater part of the afternoon. He 
seemed depressed and frequentl}- spoke of the ordeal 
which had completely unnerved him. 

STEAMBOAT MASTER IN SUMMER. 

He said he was twenty-seven years old. He de- 
scribed himself as a steamboat master in summer and a 
mechanic in a foundry in winter. This was his second 
season as first mate of the " Slocum." It was he who 
had hired the seven deck hands for the steamer. In the 
forward cabin, which came under his charge, were stored 
boards, lines and blinds. The porter often went there to 
clean the lamps. 

Q. How many barrels of oil were there ? A. One, 
to my knowledge, containing mineral sperm ; we had it 
three weeks. 

Q. Any kerosene ? A. Not to my knowledge. 

Q. How many barrels did you see ? A. I don't 
know. All of them were empt}-. 

Q. Any charcoal there? A. If there was any it was 
not known to me. We never kept any. 

Q. What supplies were brought on for the excur- 
sion ? A. They generally take charge of that themselves. 
I didn't see what they brought. 

O. Whose duty is it to see that they do not bring 
aboard dangerous articles — fireworks, for instance ? A. 
I don't recollect. 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 181 

Flanagan thouglit tliat tiie excursionists liad brought 
aboard bananas and it seemed likely to bim tbat these 
had been packed in hay, though he was not certain. He 
did not see any barrels of glasses. He said the door of 
the forward cabin was always left open. He did not 
know of any arrangements for turning steam into the 
cabin in case of fire. 

There were two standpipes, one aft and one forward. 
The forward pipe was sometimes utilized for washing the 
deck, but so far as he knew the fire hose had never been 
taken for that purpose. 

CONCERNING PROVISION AGAINST FIRE. 

Q. When the standpipe was used how was the water 
stopped from entering the fire hose ? A. I don't know. 

Q. Did you ever see a false washer there ? A. No, sir. 

Q. How was the hose kept ? A. All rolled up small. 
I don't know who rolled it. 

Q. Was the nozzle inside ? A. I think it was out- 
side, but I am not sure. 

Flanagan looked sadly about and exclaimed: — *'I 
can't sleep. I imagine I see everything in front of me. 
A man who has gone through what I went through that 
day" 

Mr. Garvan interrupted him and put further ques- 
tions about the fire hose. Flanagan did not know 
whether or not this had been taken down when the stand- 
pipe was used for washing the decks. He said he had 
been standing watching two deck hands reeling off a new 
line at the midship gangway when Coakley ran to- 
ward him. 

He had just noticed the smoke himself and he put 
up his hand to warn the man to keep quiet. He walked 



182 STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 

forward and locked down and then returned and called 
up the tube, " Captain, we're all afire forward !" He did 
not remember the Captain's repl}'. He went to the en- 
gine room and spoke to the chief engineer, asking the 
second engineer then to turn on the water for him. 

When the hose was cut down it was full of kinks. 
Some of the men turned one wa}^, some another. 

" Gauene said 'Turn the water on,'" continued 
Flanagan. " Between kinks and everything the hose 
burst and the coupling blew off, besides I think all this 
happened together as soon as the water was turned on. I 
didn't see anyone take out a false washer." 

" What did you do next ? " pursued Mr. Garvan. 

" I told the men to get out the boats or to assist the 
people." 

COULD NOT REACH STANDPIPE. 

Flanagan said he had not seen the Captain below at 
all, and he himself had not gone up to the bridge. He 
had not been able to get to the other standpipe, although 
he had tried. He declared that he did not know hew far 
the "Slocum " had gone when the fire occurred. 

Q. Did the " Slocum " have au}' new life-preservers 
this year ? A. I don't know. I was sick and then this 
happened. 

Q. When you got back after being sick did you 
notice any new ones? A. I did not notice and I did 
not ask. 

Q. Were there any in the stateroom ? A. Yes ; 
some bad ones and some good ones. They were extra 
ones that we had on the boat. 

Q. How many were there ? A. I never counted 
them and I do not know. 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 183 

Mr. Garvan reverted to the official inspection. 
Flanagan said lie had not been around all the time with 
the inspectors. He was confused, and Mr. McManus, to 
encourage him, said : " Don't be frightened. There is 
nothing to conceal." 

" I am not frightened," returned Flanagan, in a low 
tone. 

*' Then talk up frankly," exclaimed Coroner Berry 
sharply. 

" I am trying to," muttered the mate. He said so 
far as he knew between ten and twenty life preservers 
had been rejected by the inspector. 

EXAMINED WITH A CANE, 

" Did you not tell me in my office that the inspector 
went around with a ruler in his hand and poked some of 
the life preservers in sight ? " asked Mr. Garvan. Flan- 
agan answered feebly, " I don't know whether it was a 
ruler or a cane," 

"Did you not say that in ten or twenty of them he 
poked right through the canvas and he made you take 
them down? " 

" He told me to throw them away," 

*' Did he take down any others ? " 

*' I don't know, sir," 

"Did he take down all?" 

" I took down only those he said were no good." 

*' Were any new ones put up in place of those you 
removed ?" 

" I can't say, sir; I wasn't there all the time." 

" When the inspector came was the fire hose attached 
to the standpipe ? " 

" I couldn't say." 



Ig4 STARTLING FACTS AT THE hN'QUEST. 

"Was there any test of it ?" 

"Not to my memory." 

" As a matter of fact did you ever see a life-preserver 
on the 'General Slocum' that was not stamped 'In- 
spected, September 28, 1891 ? ' " 

"No, sir." 

Flanagan said the "Slocum" was beached when he 
jumped from the main deck, amidship, starboard side. 
He did not know whether the rubber hose had been used 
after the bursting of the fire hose, but he thought that a 
deckhand had tried to use it. 

LIGHTED MATCHES IN CABIN. 

He admitted, when the Coroner questioned him, that 
he had lighted matches in the forward cabin, but he did 
not believe that it had been necessar}^ for others to do so, 
and he had heard no complaints on that score. He had 
not seen the porter on the morning of the fire. He did 
not know that any of the life preserver racks had been 
empty, and he had not heard that children had pulled 
down one rack and that the former contents had been 
taken to the store room. 

John J. Coakle}^, a deck hand, and the first of the 
"General Slocum's" crew to see the fire, told a story 
dififerent in many particulars from the testimony he had 
previously given before the Coroner. He said he had 
been employed on the boat eighteen days prior to the fire 
and received $6.25 a week and his board. He had also 
worked on the " General Slocum " as deck hand in 1890. 

" Have you ever seen any fire drill on the " Geuer^.l 
Slocum ? " asked Mr. Garvan. 

" No, sir," he answered. 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 185 

" Were you at anytime instructed what to do in case 

of fire?" 

'' No, never at any time," 

Coakley had been detailed to stand at the gangplank 
and count the excursionists as they went aboard the boat 
at the foot of East Third street, and said that he counted 
982 grown persons and estimated that there were chil- 
dren enough to bring the total number up to iioo, 

"I had a counting machine," he said, '*and counted 
all children under fourteen two for one. The best esti- 
mate I could make gave about iioo persons all told. 
There were 982 grown persons and children enough to 
make up iioo." 

He then described various parts of the ship and said 
the fire started in a locker forward, in which was kept 
oil, the ship's lamps, pieces of canvas and other articles 
that would belong in a general store room. 

LAMP KEPT BURNING. 

This room was never locked. A lamp was usually 
kept burning inside. Because of the heat in the room, 
members of the crew usually put their wet clothes in 
there to dry. It was a hot place, because it was near the 
boiler room. It was also near the bar, and Coakley stood 
at the bar drinking a glass of beer when a small boy ran 
up to him and tugged at his sleeve and said, ''Mister, 
look at the smoke ; I guess the boat's on fire." 

Mr. Garvan required the witness to describe all that 
took place after the boat left Third street until she was 
beached on North Brother Island. 

"After leaving Third street," said Coakley, "I was 
in different parts of the ship trying to keep the children 
from climbing over the rail. I got two police officers and 



186 STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 

went with them to the hurricane deck and told them how 
to watch the children. Then I went to the main deck." 
He then described how the bo\' went up to him and called 
his attention to the smoke. 

" The smoke came up to about three feet from where 
I stood," he said, ''and out of the forward cabin. I ran 
to the stairs and saw the room was full of smoke. I went 
in and tried to get a piece of canvass to smother it, but 
could not tear it loose. Then I tried to smother it with 
a bag of charcoal, but the smoke and heat drove me 
away. 

"I couldn't tell exactly where the fire was, there 
was so much smoke. Then I called three other deck 
hands and I think they went back with me, but they say 
thev did not. After that I took mj^ knife and cut away 
the fastenings that held the coil of fire hose." 

BURST IN SEVERAL PLACES. 

" Had 3'ou ever seen water put through that hose ? " 
asked Mr. Gar\'au. 

"No, sir," he said. "After I let down the hose it 
all kinked up, and wlien the water was turned on it burst 
in several places at once." 

Coakle}' explained that the hose was not laid flat in 
a pile on a shelf, but was in a coil suspended and in such 
shape that when it was drawn out it curled and kinked 
in many places. He said the two hundred feet of hose 
was uncoiled in a space of thirty feet, and there was no 
time or chance to straighten out the kiuks. 

"Wasn't the hose forced off the standpipe when the 
water was turned on ? " was asked. He said it was not, 
but other witnesses testified that it was. He sai-d that 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 187 

no effort was made to connect the smaller rubber hose 
used in washing the decks after the fire hose burst. 

^' The people jammed about us so," he continued, 
''that we could not do anything. Women grabbed me 
and the other deck hands, and we went to the upper 
decks. One of the deck hands thrust a baby into my 
arms and said, * You better save this child,' and I went 
into the water." 

The witness tried to relate his experience in the 
water, but Mr. Garvan stopped him and asked him why 
he did not make greater effort to save the passengers 
before jumping overboard. 

WILD JAM OF PEOPLE. 

" The people lost their heads," he said, "and jammed 
about us so we could do very little. We got down a great 
many life preservers and one boat was lowered. It was 
filled with people and was swamped near the bow. 
(Later witnesses testified that no boats were lowered.) 

" The life preservers that I saw were in good condi- 
tion, none of them being ripped, and I saw a great many 
persons putting them on." 

" Was any effort made to put out the fire after the 
hose burst?" asked Coroner Berry. 

" No, sir; none that I saw." 

"Were any fire extinguishers, water buckets or any 
other fire-fighting apparatus aside from the hose used 
when the fire was first discovered or at any time ? " 

"No, sir." 

Coakley could not locate exactly where the " General 
Slocum " was when the fire started, but said it was 
shortly after they had passed the Blackwell's Island 
beacon light. In answer to questions put by the Assist- 



188 STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 

ant District Attorney, Coakley said he had taken several 
drinks on the day of the accident, had taken several the 
day before and several each da}- since then. At the close 
of the hearing Coakley was committed to the House of 
Detention by order of the Coroner. All other members 
of the crew were taken back to the Lebanon Hospital 
'Under police escort. 

Thomas Collins, another deck hand, was called after 
Coakley. He had been emploj-ed on the "General 
Slocum " only four days prior to the accident. He had 
worked one day on her four 3'^ears ago. 

NO FIRE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN. 

" Did you ever receive any instructions on the 
* General Slocum ' as to what to do in case of fire, or 
did 3"ou ever see any fire drill on the boat?" was 
asked. 

" No, sir," he said. 

Collins stated that he was detailed to stand by the 
lines, and was near the forward gangway on the main 
deck when the fire started. His attention was first 
attracted b}^ the screams of women. He told of his part 
of the work in getting down the fire hose and said he ran 
with the nozzle to the door of the locker, but when the 
water was turned on the hose burst and then all hands 
ran to the upper deck. 

"Did you see any life boats lowered? " 

" I did not." 

" Did you see au}' life preservers taken down b}- the 
crew ? " 

"Yes, several ; but I didn't see any of them tear or 
rip." 

Both Coakley and Collins were questioned concern- 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 189 

ing a rubber washer tliat was placed over the moutli of 
the standpipe to prevent water from dripping down into 
the fire hose and rotting it. It was said this washer 
greatly impeded the work of the men in coupling the 
hose, but neither of them knew an3^thing about it. 
Other Avitnesses described it fully. Collins said the 
panic was so great that it was difficult for anyone to 
remember just what happened. He admitted that he 
was greatly excited, but said he did not jump until the 
boat was beached. 

After handing to Mr. Garvan the bills for fire fight- 
ing apparatus, Mr. Barnaby said he understood that all 
the articles had been bought for the " Slocum," though 
he had no personal knowledge on the subject. 

W^ORDS RUBBED OUT. 

Q. I wish to show you one of the bills and to ask 
you who rubbed out the words " Grand Republic ? " A. 
I don't know. While the accounts were kept in the 
name of the ''Grand Republic," the supplies were taken 
in the other boat when needed. 

Q. I notice that the bills are made out to the " Grand 
Republic," and that on all but one an effort has been 
made to erase the name ; can you tell me anything about 
this ? A. I know nothing about what is on the bills. 

Q. Didn't you tell me that there were separate 
accounts for the two steamers ? A. Yes, on our books. 
The bills may have been marked for one or for the other 
by the sellers. 

Q. I understand that life-preservers must bear the 
name of the ship ; who marks them ? A. I do not know 
whether the manufacturer does or the steamboat com* 
pany. 



190 



STARTLLNG FAC IS M" THE INQUEST. 



Mr. Barnaby did not know whether he could obtain 
a list of the company^s expenditures for life-preservers 
since 1S91, but he said he would try to get it. Many of 
the old ledgers were in storage in Brooklyn. A certified 
copy of the government inspection, dated May 6, 1904, 
was put -n evidence, with a roster of the crews. The 
^^Slocurn" was l)uilt from specifications made by Captain 
Pease. Captain Van Schaick was not a stockholder in the 
Knickerbocker company. 

In answer to Mr. Dittenhoefer's questions, Mr. 
Barnaby said he had business outside of the steamboat 
company which occupies most of his time. He does 
not pretend to be a steamboat man or to have any knowl- 
edge of boat building. He relied implicitly up'-)n the 
reports of the government inspectors and upon informa- 
tion he obtained from Captains Pease and Van Schaick. 
If any defects had been called to his attention he would 
have remedied them at once. 

NOT IN SAFE CONDITION. 
Q. (by Mr. McManus). What conversation did you 
have with Captain Pease about repairs to the " vSlocum? " 
A. He called on me in February and told me that the 
"General Slocum" was not in first-class condition, and 
she was not as popular as he would like to see her. I 
said: "Put her in as fine a condition as you can make 
her." That's all I said. 

Q. What was the cost of the repairs ? A. About 

$12,000, or more. 

Q. What was the value of the "Slocum," and how 
much insurance did you carry ? A. I think she cost 
$165,000. Our insurance was $70,000. 

Mr. Barnaby said the "Slocum" was considered by 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 191 

insurance men a good risk, and lie was assured that the 
rates were the lowest possible, four per cent., less a dis- 
count and less a rebate. He was then excused and Mr. 
Atkinson was questioned briefl}'. 

He said that as secretary he had charge of the com- 
pany's books, but not of the equipment. Captain Van 
Schaick had charge of this branch of work for the "Slo- 
cum," but under the supervision of Captain Pease. Miss 
Hall, the company's bookkeeper, had handed to him the 
bills introduced as exhibits, and he had turned them over 
to Mr. Barnaby. He had not applied acid to them, nor 
had he altered them in any other manner. He had not 
even examined them. He had made the arrangements 
for the excursion of the St. Mark's Lutheran Church 
Sunday School with William H. Pulman. 

CHARGE FOR DAY'S USE. 

There was a written contract which was burned with 
the boat. Mr. Pulman had chartered the " Slocum " out- 
right for the da}'- at the rate of $350. This arrangement 
carried with it the right to supply refreshments. One of 
the stewards asked Mr. Atkinson on Wednesday morn- 
ing if the Sunday school party would require anything 
and was informed that nothing had been said on the sub- 
ject. 

" Has the company paid any dividends in recent 
years?" inquired Mr. McManus. 

" It has not paid a dividend in the seven years that 
I have been connected with it," was the reply. 

Promising to send Miss Hall to the armory imme- 
diately, Mr. Atkinson hurried away. 

James Corcoran came to the witness stand in his 
shirt sleeves. For four years he had worked as a deck 



192 STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 

hand in summer and driven newspaper deliver}- wagons 
in winter. He was the head deck hand on the " Slocum," 
coming directly after the mate. 

Q. Did you have any fire drills on the "Slocum'' ? 
A. No, sir, not this season. 

Q. What time did you leave the Third street dock 
last Wednesda}- ? A. About twent}'- minutes to ten. 

Q. Where were you when the fire occurred ? A. I 
was on the midship gangway, port side. 

Q, How far was that from the forward cabin ? A. 
About twenty-five feet. I could see it. The first I knew 
some one 3'elled, "Fire!" and I tried to go down, but 
there was no chance, as it was all blazing. 

HOSE BADLY TWISTED. 

Another deck hand ran b}' and 3'elled to the mate 
and then Corcoran and others returned to stretch the 
hose. By this time the fire covered the entire front of 
the fonvard cabin. The hose had been coiled with the 
nozzle in the centre. The mate seized the nozzle and 
pulled ; it came out, but the hose after it was badU^ 
twisted and with kinks everj-where. 

Q. Did any water come through ? A. Yes, quite a 
little stream, till the hose '"busted.'' 

Q. How long was that after the water came? A. 
About five minutes. 

Q. Do you mean to sa}^ water ran in spite of the 
kinks ? A. Yes, but it had no pressure It was like 
water from a faucet, and carried, I should judge, ten feet. 
When the burst came the men left and I started to pull 
down life preservers. 

Q. Did you close the door of the forward cabin when 
you left ? A. Yes, sir, I closed that door and two others. 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 193 

Corcorau said he had started for the hurricane 
deck, but he had uot been able to get beyond the promen- 
ade deck on account of the crowd about the door. He 
was positive that no boats had been lowered. He thought 
that the"Slocum" was then opposite 105th or io6tli 
street, but he was not quite certain, although he is 
familiar with the river. He did not know whether anj^ 
new life preservers had been placed on the " Slocum " 
this year. 

He said a false washer of solid rubber had been 
placed in the stand pipe in front of the nozzle supplying 
the fire hose. This had been done to prevent the hose 
from rotting, and to get water to the fire hose would have 
involved uncoupling the hose and removing the washer. 
This was not not done, so far as he knew. The decks 
were usually washed b}^ a rubber hose connected with 
pumps on docks, but when this was not convenient salt 
water was drawn through the stand pipe and the washer 
protected the fire hose. There had been some talk about 
using the little rubber hose on the fire, but it was then 
too late and nothing was done. 

FIRST SUIT FOR DAMAGES. 

In the first of the suits for damages which have been 
brought against the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company 
for loss of life on the " General Slocum" the interesting 
point has been raised that as the disaster occurred on in- 
land waters the United States statute limiting the liability 
of owners to the value of the vessel does not apply. 

Jacob Friedman, a lawyer, counsel for Mrs. Kate 
Mattler, who lost four children on the ill-fated "Slocum," 
began an action in her behalf for the recovery of $5o,ocx). 

" I expect to obtain judgment against the owners on 

•N.Y..13 



ly-l STAR1L1N(; FACTS AT THK INQURST. 

the ground ihat they failed to provide proper life pre- 
servers and proper means to extinguish fire, and that the 
officers failed to stop the boat so that the passengers 
could be saved. Section No. 4,283 of the United States 
Revised Statutes, which has been referred to frequently 
since the disaster, will not avail the compan}' in seek- 
ing to evade financial responsibilit}', for two reasons : first, 
the accident happened on an inland stream and Section 
No. 4,289, of the Revised Statutes provides that Section 
4,283 does not apply to accidents on inland streams; 
second, officers of the company owning the vessel had 
knowledge or in law will be deemed to have had knowl- 
edge of the deficient equipment of the boat." 

PLAIN VIOLATION OF LAW. 

" In addition it has been decided in cases brought 
under the State law that officers of a company may be 
held for violations of law when the violations are due to 
acts or omissions of acts which the}'^ are charged by law 
to perform. 

" I intend also to sue the president of the company 
individual!}', as the State law holds an officer liable when 
a corporation fails to observe the law." 

After an examination of the standpipe and hose 
taken from the wreck of the "Slocum," Coroner O'Gor- 
man declared that he was convinced that absolutely no 
attempt was made by the crew of the burned steamer to 
fight the flames. 

"The stand pipe," said the Coroner, " had not been 
unscrewed, and as for the hose, it is all burned on a flat 
edge. That is to sa}-, it is not burned all around, as it 
would have been had it been strung out and put in ser- 
vice. Instead, there is a long streak of black along the 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 195 

edges, showing tliat the flames scorched it as it la}^ coiled 
up and flattened. 

" Most of this hose, I find, is made of the cheapest 
material, and while capable of carrying water, a stream 
must be run through it for about ten minutes before any 
effective work can be done with it. It was absolutely 
useless for an emergency such as that which arose." 

Regarding the life ring, which was found at the 
bottom of the river with four women clinging to it, 
Coroner O' Gorman said : 

"That is the finest anchor I ever saw. Why, it is 
incapable of sustaining even its own weight above 
water." 

"There is no use reinspecting the steamboats in the 
harbor," said a steamboat inspector who was among wit- 
nesses at the inquest. He spoke plainly, but requested 
that his name should not be disclosed. 

INSPECTORS PASS THE BOATS. 

"This order is all rot," he continued, "and every 
steamboat man knows it. Every boat will be prepared 
for the inspection, and of course the inspectors will have 
to give them the O. K. mark. 

"We have a pretty tough time of it, as an experi- 
ence I had the day after the "Slocum" disaster will show. 
I was going over a boat and hauled down a couple of life- 
preservers to see what condition they were in. They 
didn't look right, and I told the owner and captain that 
all of them would have to come down. They both 
kicked. 

"I tore the covering off one of the preservers despite 
the protests of the captain. I then told the owner he 
would have to get new ones. He insisted that they were 



196 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 



good enough, aud I said he could do as he pleased about 
it, but I was going to condemn them all. 

"The fire hose was nicely coiled up with a highly 
polished brass nozzle and looked fine. But when I 
unreeled the hose I found it was rotten. In case of fire 
it would have been absolutely useless. I ordered them 
to get new hose, and I am going back there to see that 

they do it. 

'^ These so-called fire drills on excursion steamers 
are farces. I know what I am talking about, for I have 
worked on boats for years. They have fire drills on the 
big passenger steamers that run the year round, but on 
these excursion steamers the crew is changing all the 
time and they never have drills. The only part of the 
crew that has any permanency is in the pilot house and 
engine room. The deck crew is changed two and three 
times a week, the captain picking up any one he can get. 
You know they don't pay much. 

TWO RIGID RULES. 
"There are two points to the "Slocum " disaster to 
which attention ought to be called. One is that no pas- 
senger steamboat should be built with wooden stanchions. 
If the stanchions on the " Slocum " had been of iron the 
deck would not have fallen and many lives would have 
been saved. And if the life preservers were made of 
solid cork, instead of granulated cork, it would make no 
difference if the covering was torn. The life preserver 
would still do its work," 

The following statement was made by a responsible 

journal : — 

"The John D, Rockefeller millions have come to the 
aid of the sufferers from the " Slocum " disaster. It was 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 197 

learned that a contribution was received which was not reg- 
istered, but which places the fund upon a foundation of 
solid rock. It leaked out that a telephone message had 
been received from the offices of the Standard Oil Corn- 
pan}^ that the great fortune of the richest man in the world 
was at its disposal to be drawn upon for any deficiency 
in the fund which might remain after other donations had 
ceased to come in. 

*' This renders easy and practicable the plan of the 
committee to resolve itself into a permanent organization 
for the future maintenance of the children who have been 
left orphans and the dependents who have been left with- 
out support. It was decided at the meeting of the com- 
mittee at the St. Mark's Lutheran Church that a per- 
manent organization should be effected, that incorpora- 
tion papers should be taken out and that a legal name 
should be adopted in order that the committee might be- 
come legal guardians of the children and dependents de- 
prived of their support by the disaster. 

LOOKING AFTER ORPHANS. 

^' It was decided that when the immediate necessities 
of the sufferers had all been met and the exact dimensions 
of the fund definitely ascertained an appropriation should 
be made for each orphan and dependent, to be kept in 
trust for that child or dependent as long as he or she 

might need it. 

" It was announced that $5,000 had been pledged to 
undertakers for funeral expenses, and $500 expended for 
drugs, medical attendance, food and mourning clothing, 
and that the most pressing necessiries of the sufferers 
had been largely cleared away." 

The question arose as to how the captains and pilots 



198 



STARTLING FACTS AT THE INQUEST. 



of the steamboats in the harbor are licensed. General 
Dumont, the local United States Steamboat Inspector, 
said: "These men receive their certificates from this 
office after rigid examination. They have to prove them- 
selves thoroughly competent before the certificates are 

granted.'' . 

It appears, therefore, that the Federal officials may 
be held responsible not only for the condition of the 
'' Slocum " and its apparatus, but also for the ability of 
its captain and pilots. 

While Captain Van Schaick was spoken of in highest 
terms by his confreres on the river front, it was generally 
acknowledged that the captain of an excursion boat acts 
largely as a fiscal agent for the owners, and has to keep 
a keen eye upon money matters. Under the law he is 
compelled to remain in the pilot house only while passing 
Hell Gate or other such dangerous points, but for the 
remainder of the time is expected to stay on the deck. 




CHAPTER X. 
NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 

HENRY LUNDBERG, Assistant Inspector of Steam- 
boats, was committed to the House of Detention 
by Coroner Joseph I. Berry, of the Bronx, when an ad- 
journment was taken in the inquest into the death of the 
victims of the '* General Slocum " disaster. Lundberg 
seemed nonplussed and stared about helplessly while his 
lawyer made a vain plea in his behalf. Coroner Berry 
refused to permit the Federal official to leave the court- 
room in the custody of his counsel. 

Assistant District Attorney, Francis P. Garvan, who 
had applied for the commitment of the inspector, said he 
would not object to having bail set at a sum that seemed 
to him most reasonable — $500. Mr. Lundberg gave a 
sigh of relief when the Coroner acquiesced. After a slight 
delay the bail bond was signed and the inspector left the 
court. 

Mr. Garvan had described Mr. Lundberg' s actions 
on the witness stand as a "disgraceful spectacle on the 
part of a United States official." The inspector, b}^ ad- 
vice of his counsel, had refused to answer almost every 
question put to him on the plea that anything he said 
might tend to incriminate him. 

Investigation was resumed of the bills for life pre- 
servers sent to the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company 
which were produced at the inquest on Monday, June 
20th, by Frank A. Barnaby, president of the company. 
In four out of five of these bills the name of the steamer 
199 



2M NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE Pl-BUC 

"Grand Republic " had been clumsily erased by means of 
acid and the words ** General Slocum " had been wTitten 
in its place. 

Miss M. C. Hall, who had charge of the company's 
books, was called upon for an explanation. She said she 
had been in the habit for some years of making erasures 
in her books with acid, instead of drawing her pen 
through an entry. All bills from the firm that sold the 
life preservers were addressed to the '* Grand Republic." 
She did not enter them in her books at once but kept 
them until they were paid. To be able to enter them 
properly she marked some ot them for the "General 
Slocum's " account, 

CHANGED NAMES ON BILLS. 

Closely questioned she admitted that she had 
changed the name on some of these bills for safet}- ap- 
pliances without knowing to which of the compan3-'s 
boats they had been consigned, but she insisted that she 
had not altered the bills since the accident. 

There was nothing brought out in the testimony to 
show that one of the 350 life presenters purchased b}- the 
company this year had been placed aboard the '* Slo- 
cum." All had been consigned to the " Grand Republic'' 
and none of the "Slocum's" crew had seen an^- of them. 
Three of the crew had been examined and agreed that no 
fire drill had been held on the " Slocum " this year. 
Several radical defects of the boat were brought to notice. 

Henry Lundberg. Assistant United States Inspector 
of Hulls, who made the inspection of the life preservers 
and other equipments of the '* General Slocum " had no 
sooner seated himself in the witness chair than his per- 
sonal counsel addressed the Coroner in his behalf. 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 20l 

''In a great disaster of this kind," lie said, "the pub- 
lic looks for some one upon wliom may be placed the re- 
sponsibility, and, unfortunately for Mr. Lundberg, there 
seems to be indications that he is the man selected. The 
press, the District Attorney and others appear to be point- 
ing toward Mr. Lundberg, and therefore we feel that we 
must refuse to answer all questions at this time on the 
ground that it might tend to incriminate him." 

Coroner Berry struck the table with his gavel, " I 
must resent the insinuation that any injustice is to be 
done in this court," he said, 

WITNESS NOTHING TO FEAR. 

" I also resent these insinuations," said Mr, Garvan. 
" This witness has nothing to fear. The refusal to answer 
questions is only for the protection of criminals, and I 
want this witness to understand that his refusal puts him 
in a bad light. The spectacle of a United States officer 
taking this ground is not a pleasing one. If he has done 
but his duty he has nothing to fear." 

Former Judge Dittenhoefer, representing the presi- 
dent of the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company, and Mr. 
McManus, representing the company generally, said they 
had no objection to the witness answering any and all 
questions. There was a long wrangle among the lawyers, 
and Coroner Berry reserved his decision as to whether or 
not the witness should be required to answer. Meanwhile 
Mr. Garvan proceeded with the examination. 

To the first preliminary questions Lundberg an- 
swered that he was thirty-four years old, lived in Brook- 
lyn, was appointed January 13, 1904, from the Civil Ser- 
vice list by James A. Dumont, and received a salary of 
$2,000 a year. 



'Hyi 



NKW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 



'^ How many ships have you examined this year?" 
was Mr. Garvan\s next question. 

'^I refuse to answer," said the witness. 

" On what grounds ? " 

" That it would tend to incriminate me." 

" Were you the inspector of the hull of the ' Gen- 
eral Slocuni '? " 

" I must refuse to answer," again muttered Lund- 
berg in low tones. 

" On what grounds ? " 

" That it would tend to incriminate me." 

" Did you examine the ' General Slocum ' on May 

6, 1904 i"' T ^ 'f 

" I refuse to answer any questions because 1 don t 

know what date it was and it might incriminate me." 

iMr. Garvan stepped nearer to the witness and again 

asked : 

QUESTIONS NOT ANSWERED. 
" Did you examine the ' General Slocum ? ' " 
" Yes, sir. I sent my report to the office, and that's 

all I've got to say." 

' Did you report that there were 2,550 good lite pre- 
servers on that boat? " 

" I refuse to answer on the ground that it might 

incriminate me." , 

" Will you tell this jury what your examination ot 

that boat was like ? " (Same answer.) 

"Did you, sir, perform an honest inspection of the 

' General Slocum ? ' " (Same answer.) 

Failing to get but the one answer from Lundberg 

Mr. Garvan turned to the Coroner and said : " That is 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 203 

all, but I think this witness should be detained in the 
House of Detention." 

" I'll place him there," said Coroner Berry. 

"I would ask that you place him in my custody," 
said his lawyer. 

''No; I shall send him to the House of Detention,' 
said the Coroner. Mr. Gilbert then asked that he be ad- 
mitted to bail. 

" Fix the bail at $500," said the Assistant District 
Attorney, and Mr. Gilbert protested. 

" This man will not run away," he said. "It is unfair 
and unprecedented to treat a public officer in this way." 

"He maybe a public officer now," broke in Mr. 
Garvan, " but I hardly believe he will be when it is 
known that he has refused to answer these questions." 

Lundberg was detained in the custody of a policeman 
to await the arrival of a bondsman. 

CREW NEVER DRILLED. 

When Daniel O'Neil was called to the stand as the 
first witness at the Coroner's inquest, the temporary 
court room in the Second Battery's armory, at Bathgate 
avenue and 177th street, was well filled. 

O'Neil is twenty-four years old. He said he had 
never worked on a boat until last April, when he ob- 
tained employment as a deck hand on the " Slocum." He 
had never seen a fire drill, and nothing had ever been 
done in his presence with the life boats or the fire hose. 
At the time of Inspector Lundberg' s visit to the boat he 
had seen a man using a tape measure on the hurricane 
deck, but had not noticed that any of the life preservers 
were removed from their places. 

Mr. Gar\'an had received a communication declaring 



204 NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 

that there had been a fire in the forward cabin of the 
"Slocum" on the day before the accident, but none of 
the crew questioned had any knowledge of it. O'Neil said 
he had not been in the forward cabin at all on Wednes- 
day morning, the day of the accident. He had helped t'^ 
carry five barrels of glasses aboard the evening before, 
but he did not know where they had been placed. He saw 
one of them on Wednesday under a keg of beer. 

In the forward cabin, O'Neil said, were stored stools, 
old rope, awning, wood, oil, paint, some life preservers, 
charcoal and canvas. There was no regular light in the 
place but the door was left open. 

O'Neil was on the port gangway amidship when he 
heard a shout and saw dense smoke. The mate, Flana- 
gan, came up j-elling. O'Niel helped to take down the 
hose, and after handing the nozzle to another deck hand 
turned on the water. He then saw the water rushing 
from the pipe and heard Flanagan call for another 
hose. 

COUPLING DID NOT FIT. 

The rubber deck hose was brought, but it could not 
be used, as the coupling did not fit on the standpipe. At 
the time the fire was discovered he believed that the boat 
was through Hell Gate. 

Q. What did you do when the rubber hose was put 
aside? A. With Corcoran, I waved my hat to a tug pass- 
ing with lighters. Then I tried to pacify the crowd. I 
saw a rowboat coming to our assistance and I jumped to 
help the man in it. 

Q. Did you capsize the rowboat ? A. It capsized 
and I swam ashore. 

Q, Did you wear a life preserver ? A. No. 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 206 

Q. Before you jumped didn't you liear the man in 
the boat cry that he had enough aboard ? A. I heard 
him, but I wanted to help him. 

Q. You are an expert swimmer ? A. I don't think 
so. 

Bverett Brandow, assistant engineer, testified that 
he had worked six seasons on the "Slocum." There was 
on the boat a valve by which steam could be turned into 
the fire room, but there were no arrangements for turn- 
ing on steam elsewhere. The "Slocum" left the Third 
street pier at about twenty minutes to ten, and it was 
about half-past ten when mate Flanagan reported the 
fire. 

FULL SPEED THROUGH HELL GATE. 

He said the boat always ran at full speed through 
Hell Gate. Before the alarm he had been told that the 
excursionists did not wish to reach their destination until 
one o'clock, and the pilot. Van Wart, gave the signal 
"slow." He inferred that the "Slocum " had passed Hell 
Gate. 

After the fire signal, there came an order for full 
speed, then one sounded to stop, and later one to go 
ahead. The next order was to "slow," the final one was 
"full speed." These directions were so fast that they al- 
most came together. Brandow believed the interval be- 
tween each one had been four or five seconds. When 
the boat beached he stopped the machinery. 

Conklin, the chief engineer, started for the donkey 
engine room on the first alarm, the witness said, and 
Brandow next saw him on North Brother Island. 

Brandow jumped just forward of the wheel. The 
passengers were massed aft, where there was no fire at 



206 



NKW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 



that time, as the flames were all forward. The assistant 
engineer said he had helped to pull out of the shallow 
water a little girl who was drowning. 

Edwin N. Weaver, second pilot, testified that he had 
been a licensed pilot since May, 1900; that he had 
served five or six years on the " General Slocum," but 
had never seen any fire drill on the boat ; did not know 
that any new life preservers had been placed on the ves- 
sel during his service and had no knowledge of any ap- 
paratus or equipment for turning steam into the hold in 

case of fire. 

"As the second pilot of the 'General Slocum,^ asked 
Mr. Garvan, "did you know of any signals giving the 
order to turn steam into the hold of the ship in case of 

fire?" 

" I never heard of such signals on the boat," he 

said. 

NO CHANCE TO TURN ON STEAM. 

Q. Was there any apparatus for turning steam into 
the hold ? A. Not to my knowledge, sir. 

Q. Did you ever see any fire drill on the boat ? A. 

No, sir. 

Q. Do you think the Captain could have had such a 
drill without your knowledge ? A. No, sir. 

The witness described the hose in use on the "Slo- 
cum" and said that at the opening of the season he was 
sent to purchase 100 feet of hose for the after main deck 
and bought it in Park Place, paying 16 cents a foot. 

The first knowledge of the fire came to hiiu when he 
was standing in the pilot house with Van Wert, the first 
pilot, and Captain Van Schaick. 

''We were just three lengths past the Sunken Mead- 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 207 

ows," he said, "when Mate Flanagan called up the tube, 
'The ship's on fire forward.' We were then going at full 
speed. The Captain said, 'I'll go down and see about it,' 
and within a minute he came back and said, 'Put her on 
North Brother Island as quick as you can.' I grabbed 
the whistle and kept it blowing for help and Van Wert 
rang the fire alarm bells on the decks. In a very short 
time the flames and smoke were rolling up over the hur- 
ricane decks and into the pilot house. I had closed the 
windows to keep the flames out." 

Q. Did you see any effort made to get the lifeboats 
loose ? A. I did not. 

Q. Did you see any of the crew on the hurricane 
deck ? A. No, sir. 

Coroner Berry then asked : — " If you had been in 
charge of the vessel, where, in your judgment was the 
best place to beach her ? " 

BEACHED IN BEST PLACE. 

" The exact spot where she was put," he said with 
much emphasis." 

"Don't you think Locust Point, at 129th street, 
would have been a better place for the passengers ? " 

" No sir. She was running at full speed with the 
flood tide and to have turned her there would have re- 
quired from five to eight minutes and not a soul would 
have been alive to tell the tale. By going to North 
Brother we turned gradually and gave the passengers a 
better chance to escape. 

" The 'General Slocum' was the best equipped boat 
of the kind I was ever on." 

When Miss M. C. Hall was summoned as a witness 
several bulky bundles of ledgers were brought forward 



209 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 



by court attendants. vShc began her testimony m so low 
a voice that persons close to her could not hear. vShe has 
been employed by the Knickerbocker Steamboat Com- 
pany since 1890. vShe has been sole bookkeeper since 
1895. She now acts as bookkeeper, stenographer and 

cashier. 

She said she had handed several papers to the secre- 
tary of the company for Mr. Barnaby on Monday morn- 
ing. She had done nothing to any of them since she 
was told to get them on Saturday. She remembered that 
some time before she had erased the name of the "Grand 
Republic." 

SEPARATE ACCOUNTS OF STEAMERS. 

Q. Why did you do that? A. I tried to keep the 
accounts of the two steamers separate and to avoid mak- 
ing any mistakes, so when I believed that supplies for 
the "Slocum" were billed to the "Grand Republic" I 
changed the name to keep right. 

Q. Is that true ? A, (with spirit) Yes, it is true, 

Q. How long is it since you changed these bills ? 
A, I do not remember. It has been a common occur- 
rence for me to change the bills. 

Q. Did you make these changes within two months? 

A. I do not know. 

Q. How did you find out to which boat the charges 
should be made ? A. By consulting one of the captains, 
preferably Captain Pease. 

Miss Hall became confused when she was asked for 
details. She had kept separate accounts for the steam- 
ers, she said, yet when her books were produced she de- 
clared that there was no way for her to tell whether any 
life preservers had been charged to the account of the 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 209 

"General Slocuni" since 1902. Her system of book- 
keeping, she then explained, only gives the total 
amounts for repairs by months. 

By searching through the books she found two or 
three places where she had used acid to erase entries. 
She was able to find in her ledger charges against the 
"Grand Republic" for life preservers in 1902 and 1903 
covering the amounts of the bills that she had altered. 
This year's purchases have not been posted in her books, 
as she only enters them either when the bills are paid or 
else at the end of the season. She expressed herself as 
certain that she had not altered the bills since the "Gen- 
eral Slocum" disaster. 

WHY BILLS WERE CHANGED. 

Q. Now, will you tell me why you changed these 
last bills? A, For my personal assistance when the 
time came to enter the bills. All purchases from the 
firm of David Kahnweiler & Co. were billed to the "Grand 
Republic." I wished to enter them right after speaking 
to the captains. 

Q. But why did you insert the name of the " Slo- 
cum ? " A. I intended to find out later. I have not in- 
quired yet, because the bills were not paid. 

Q. And not knowing for which boat the life preserv- 
ers were intended, you changed the name on a bill dated 
May 19? A. Well, you see, when I wanted to make a 
change I w'as accustomed to use acid. I did so as a mat- 
ter of convenience in this case, so I should not charge all 
to the " Grand Republic." 

Q. Do not all bills for supplies give the name of the 
ship for which they are intended ? Yes, but often incor- 
rectly. 

N.Y. 14. 



210 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 



Miss Hall declared, with some display of agitation, 
that she did not know that the 350 life-preservers bought 
this year had been correctly charged to the " Grand Re- 
public " for which they were intended. She found that 
her books showed that the ' 'Grand Republic" had received 
all the life-preservers bought in 1902 and 1903. 

" Can you now tell us the reason why you took the 
name of the "Grand Republic" from the bill dated May 19, 
1904?" pressed Mr. Garvan. 

"I couldn't give any," replied Miss Hall. 
She denied that he had received instructions from 
any person to alter the bills. vShe had used acid for 
erasures since 1891 or 1892. Va: Barnaby, she said, 
examined her books very rarely and did not interfere with 
her system. Even if she changed the title it made no 
difference, as all went into one account at the end of the 
season. Several of the jurors questioned Miss Hall. She 
promised to look for other bills with acid erasures, and 
left the court room. 

LIFE PRESERVERS DELIVERED. 
Miss Reba Goldberg, bookkeeper for the firm of 
David Kahnweiler & Co., was the next witness. She 
testified that she had made out the bills offered m evi- 
dence and that she had written "Grand Republic" where 
"General Slocum" had been substituted. The order for 
the life-preservers had been given by Captain J. A. Pease, 
of the "Grand Republic," and the receipt showed that 
they had been delivered on his boat. 

Oscar Kahnweiler, a member of the firm, said he 
had sold about 2,250 life-preservers for use on the "Slo- 
cum" in 1891. He was quite positive that he had billed 
none to the boat since 1895. Before selling life-preservers 



NKW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 211 

they must liave the government inspector's stamp. Life- 
preservers that are kept properly may last twenty years. 
He had seen some on the steamer ''Dean Richmond" in 
good condition after twenty-eight or thirty years' service. 

Mr. Garvan brought from a back room a wretched 
specimen of a life-preserver, with the canvas torn in a 
dozen places and the granulated cork stuffing falling out 
whenever it was moved. It was one of those taken from 
the " Slocum." 

"Do you think that this life-preserver's lifeis over?" 
he inquired, showing it to the witness. 

Mr. Kahnweiler examined it critically and said: — 
" I would be willing to trust to that in the water now with 
my arms and feet tied together." 

OLD, ROTTEN LIFE PRESERVERS. 

" But you could float with your hands and feet tied 
without this?" suggested Mr. Garvan, tearing an end of 
the strap. 

" Oh! yes," was the reply. 

" Then you mean that this would not sink you ?" 

" I would not float with it, but go into the water face 
downward." 

Mr. Kahnweiler expressed confidence that such life- 
preservers would be sufficient to support persons in the 
water. After explaining the regulation test he was 
excused. 

From daylight until midnight the East River con- 
tinued to give up victims of the disaster. At times the 
smaller patrol boats were so heavily laden with those re- 
covered that they had difficulty in making the shore. At 
six o'clock III bodies had been taken from the water. 

Explosives were used freely in bringing the bodies 



.,., NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 

to the surface. Heavy charges °f ^^f ™''^ ^^T /'a "in 
.11 around the wreck of the " Genera Slocum and u 
addition to this two field guns from the Second B^tt"> 
were taken out on a float at eleven o'c ock and fired ^^ 
Sequent intervals along part of the P^* f *^;"-t\"' 
vessel Launches and other boats followed the float closely 
and at times the entire fleet was unable to take care of 
the bodies as fast as they appeared. 

Shortly after noon the guns fired several shots near 
the wreck of the "Slocnm" and sixteen bodies rose to 
tt surface. They had beenly.ngin a deep '-'« -r th 
sunken hull. Thirteen bodies were found along the 
shores of College Point. More were found at WhUestou. 
Most of the bodies recovered were those of women and 

children. 

BODIES IN PADDLE BOXES. 
The bodies of two women were chopped out of the 
^^IP boxes of the " General Slocum " during the after- 
Toon and the ^"11^ was raised to the surface and towed 

'""■cLot^VelSTr; if Necessary to issue a new 
order for the identification of the dead in order to prevent 
ghoul from obtaining possession of bodies or the pur- 
nose of getting valuables which belonged to them. 
^Thf Coroner admitted that in several ins ances 
efforts had been made to steal the tags from the bodies 
fdin that tay get their hands on the jewelry that be- 
Tneed to these bodies. " Because of this," said he, I 
iave i-tituted a system by which every person who 
claTm a body must himself be satisfactorily identified^ 

wHow have at least Ja50,cxx, worth of jewelry and 

valuables taken from the bodies." 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 213 

Orders were received at North Brother Island at 
night that all bodies recovered thereafter should be placed 
in metallic coffins and sent at once to the Lutheran Cem- 
etery and buried in the plot set apart for the unknown 
dead. 

The location where each body is buried would be 
carefully marked, so that if bodies could be afterward 
identified from the clothing or effects, which would be 
kept and numbered, the bodies could be disinterred and 
buried elsewhere if the relatives so desired. 

Her wedding ring led to the identification of Mrs. 
Henry Schmidt, whose body was found floating off Col- 
lege Point. There was no clew to her identity except 
in the inscription - H. S. to K- K, 1903," engraved in 
the ring, no woman of her description having been re- 
ported missing. 

LOOKING UP RECORDS. 

At the suggestion of the Rev. Mr. Fieldman, who 
was m constant attendance at St. Mark's Church, appli- 
cation was made to the Bureau of Vital Statistics', and it 
was^ there ascertained that the only persons married 
during the year 1903 having the initials found in the 
ring were Henry Schmidt and Emma Eckhardt, who 
were married on March 15 in that year by the Rev. Dr 
J. Geyer. 

Detective Ross, of Inspector Schmittberger's staff" 
who obtained the report, found Henry Schmidt, a grocer. 
Mr. Schmidt said his wife had gone on the picnic and 
her body had not been found. He had not reported the 
matter and his wife's name was therefore not on the list 
of the missing. 

"President Roosevelt sent a contribution of $500 to 



1114 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THK PUBLIC. 



the Relief Fund;' Mr. Herman Ridder announced after 
a meeting of the Relief Committee, "and Archbishop 
Farley sent $100." In regard to the sum that Mr. 
Rockefeller was to give, Mr. Ridder stated that no definite 
promise had been made by him. 

''We wish to have it well understood," he added, 
"that no one is authorized to make collections for this 
committee. The public is warned not to give money to 
any one except Mr. Shiff. 

" We are having considerable difficulty m learning 
where need exists. Persons who have been sorely afflict- 
ed and who have never asked for aid suffer m silence. 
They will not let us know of their condition. We have 
asked the police and public school teachers to help us m 
discovering needy cases, and we wish to make a public 
appeal that all such cases be reported at the church, or 
by telegraph or telephone, at our expense." 

STUFFED WITH BULLRUSHES. 
Life preservers made of bullrushes which the Brook- 
lyn police believed were a part of the equipment of the 
" General Slocum" were picked up along the Brooklyn 
water front. Several of the preservers were seen drift- 
ing down the river and some were fished out of the water. 
The men were surprised when they opened one of 
them and saw that instead of cork the so-called pre- 
servers was made up of nothing but rushes. The canvas 
was rotten. The rushes or sea grass were a little larger 
in diameter than a lead pencil, and the interior was filled 
with a porous matter, which apparently absorbs w^ater 
like a sponge, for the water could be squeezed out of the 

ends. . . , ... 

Inmemorvof the "Slocum's" victims the Alder- 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 216 

manic Chamber was draped with mourning, and orders 
were given to drape the entire City Hall. 

That the administration at Washington was deter- 
mined not only to probe the official responsibility for the 
" Slocum " disaster but so to improve the steamship in- 
spection laws that such calamities would be avoided in 
the future was shown in a statement issued at the De- 
partment of Commerce and Labor. The subject of the 
disaster and the revision of the laws was the most im- 
portant topic discussed at the Cabinet meeting. The 
statement is in part as follows : 

" In response to Secretary Cortelyou's request, the 
President directed the assignment of an officer of the 
army and an officer of the navy to the commission to 
investigate the disaster to the ' General Slocum.' 

LAW REQUIRES INVESTIGATION. 

" The investigation by the local Board of In- 
spectors, is not made under the order of the Secr<=".tary, 
but it is absolutely compulsory by Section 4,450 of the 
Revised Statutes, and this investigation is directed 
solely at the question of revocation of the licenses of 
the vessel's officers. 

" Persons have confused this investigation with the 
one to be made by the commission just appointed and 
have supposed that the investigation by the local Board 
was ordered by the Secretary and intended to cover 
the whole subject. 

" The difference between these two investigations, 
and the fact that the one by the local Board is required 
by statute, should be made clear." 

A letter from Secretary Cortelyou to Mayor Mc- 
Clellan regarding the Mayor's request for a reinspec 



216 NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 

tiou was made public. The Secretary said, " I had 
already ordered a reinspection," and called attention in 
that connection to general orders sent to collectors and 
inspectors on May 23 directing rigid inspections of ex- 
cursion boats, particularly just before holidays, when 
there are many excursions. 

In conclusion, the department made public a letter 
signed by Secretary Cortelyou declaring that this in- 
vestigation would be made thorough and the Federal 
officers held to strict accountability. 

The following was communicated by the Associated 
Press of Philadelphia: 

LETTER FROM ADMIRAL MELVILLE. 
" Filed away in the archives at Washington is a let- 
ter written by the then chief of engineers of the navy, 
Rear Admiral George W. Melville, that is interesting 
reading in view of the disaster on the 'General Slo- 
cum.' It is couched in vigorous language and without 
mincing words, declares the entire system of inspection, 
the laws and the manner of enforcing such laws loose to 
such a degree as to be a menace to life. As a result of 
this letter a commission was appointed to make a 
thorough investigation. 

"Rear Admiral Melville was asked if he would point 
out where the laws and their enforcement are so inade- 
quate. He smiled grimly. ' I guess I had better not,'^ 
he said: 'there will be courts of inquiry and coroners' 
inquests and investigations enough without my getting 
into a controversy.' " 

" Do the defects that existed then exist to-day ? " 

was asked. 

''Certainly;' was the reply. 



NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC. 217 

" Are the defects existing due to the law or its 
manner of enforcement? " 

" They are due to a defective law and a non-enforce- 
ment of that law. The department to-day has an in- 
sufficient number of reliable, responsible inspectors." 

A New York newspaper commented as follows on 
the terrible calamity : 

" Bullrush life-preservers and fire hose at sixteen 
cents a foot formed part of the life-saving and fire-fight- 
ing equipment of the ' General Slocum ' and explains 
in some slight degree the fearful loss of life. 

PRICE OF FIRE HOSE. 

" The bullrush life-preservers were not placed in 
evidence at the inquest held by Coroner Berry in the 
Armory of the Second Battery, N. Y. N. G., at Bathgate 
avenue and One Hundred and Seventy-seventh street, in 
The Bronx, but a bill from the New York Belting and 
Packing Company showed that the fire hose had been 
bought at forty cents a foot, with 60 per cent. off. The 
lives of the passengers upon the 'Slocum' are thus 
shown to have depended upon fire hose that cost less 
than the cheapest garden hose, and was far more worth- 
less. 

" This and the strange spectacle of a United States 
Inspector refusing to answer the questions asked him 
for fear they might incriminate him formed the most 
striking feature of the inques^. 

" Inspector Lundberg, by advice of his lawyer, re- 
fused to answed the questions of Mr. Garvan, and vol- 
untarily placed himself in the position of a defendant. 
He was placed under arrest as a witness, and ordered 
detained in the House of Detention for witnesses, but was 



218 NEW HORRORS SHOCK THE PUBLIC, 

later released on $500 bail. By the investigation was 
developed fully the fact that there had never been a fire 
drill on the ' Slocuni.' 

"A picked up crew of truck drivers, dock laborers, 
housesmiths and land workers of all classes were en- 
trusted with the lives of thousands of woman and chil- 
dren daily. 

" Not one of them had ever been instructed in a fire 
drill, or had ever learned the station he was to take or 
the duties he was to perform in case of fire or panic. 
Only a few of them were in any way familiar with the 
boat. Not one of them saved a human life when the 
' Slocum ' burned. 

DAMAGING TESTIMONY. 

" One, a land laborer, a few days on the boat, testified 
that he leaped into the lifeboat when it was lowered and 
swamped it. The captain, according to the testimony 
of the second pilot, Edwin Weaver, was not in the pilot 
house at any time after the fire was reported. The 
engineer, according to the testimony of the assistant 
engineer, Brandow, was not in the engine room after the 
fire was reported. 

"The mate, Edward Flanagan, a housesniith, acting 
as mate without a license, in violation of law, did noth- 
ing toward marshalling the crew and instructing them 
as to what they should do after the fake fire hose, at six- 
teen cents a foot, had burst, and their first futile, senseless 
effort to use the hose without taking out the false washer 
had failed of effect. He made no attempt to use the hose 
attached to the other standpipe forty feet aft of the for- 
ward standpipe, and on the starboard side, clear of all 
flames, according to the testimony of all the witnesses. 



np:w horrors shock the public. 219 

'' Bvery member of the crew lias sworn that the 
flames spread along the port side. The after starboard 
standpipe was clear and there were no flames in that sec- 
tion, and yet the demoralized, panic-stricken crew made no 
effort to use it, but fled wildly to other parts of the ship, 
and either leaped into the water or jumped into the only 
boat lowered and swamped it, drowning a score of women 
and children. 

'' And added to these evidences of criminal economy 
was the unpleasant spectacle of the United vStates Steam- 
boat Inspector responsible for the condition of the appa- 
ratus on board the 'Slocum ' deliberately refusing to tes- 
tify or in any manner aid the Coroner and the Assistant 
District- Attorney in ascertaining the facts connected with 
the frightful catastrophe. 

EXPERT ON LIFE PRESERVERS. 

" In this attitude he is supported apparently by his 
superior, Robert S. Rodie, Supervising Steamboat In- 
spector of this division. Mr. Rodie has refused to make 
any statement whatever concerning the 'Slocum' disas- 
ter. He spent much time examining life preservers and 
in preparing to qualify as an expert concerning them, 

" That the fire on the ' Slocum ' must be regarded as a 
national calamity was shown by the appointment of a 
commission of investigation by Secretary Cortelyou of 
the Department of Commerce and Labor. The investi- 
gation will be entirely independent of that of the local 
board of steamboat inspectors. The Second Battery of the 
National Guard fired cannon across the waters near the 
wreck and thus brought up many bodies." 



CHAPTER XL 
THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 

AT the Corouer's inquest ou the second day an 
important part of the testimony related to the por- 
ter's visit to the storeroom with a lighted lamp. This room 
was filled with inflammable stuff and it is supposed that 
in or near it the fire originated. Testimony regarding 
the inadequacy of protection against fire existing on the 
vessel and the age and poor condition of the life-preser- 
vers was corroborative of what had already been brought 
out. 

While life-preservers that were falling to pieces 
were being taken from the racks of the steamer " General 
Slocum " from time to time, no effort was made to replace 
them and those that were condemned were merel}' 
thrown into the forward cabin or under the bunks in the 
forecastle. Formal admission was made by the Knicker- 
bocker Steamboat Company at the inquest before Coroner 
Joseph 11 Berr}^, in The Bronx, that no new life-preservers 
had been bought for the steamer since 1895. 

Assistant District Attorney Francis P. Garvan, who 
examined all the witnesses, showed that the mate of the 
boat, E^dward Flanagan, has never seen a life-preserver 
aboard bearing a later date of inspection than 1S91, the 
year that the " Slocum " was launched. 

Mr. Garvan insisted in the Coroner's court that the 

bills for life-preservers introduced bj^ Frank A. Barnaby, 

president of the steamboat company, had been presented 

in bad faith. Mr. Barnaby was recalled to the witness 

220 



THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 221 

stand, and he modified liis original statements, not hav- 
ing been able to show that any of the fire fighting appa- 
ratus purchased has been placed aboard the "Slocum" 
for its safety. 

In addition to the occasion when a few life-preser- 
vers were condemned by United States Inspector Lund- 
berg, at the time of his official visit, in May, when the 
inspector had poked a cane through several and instructed 
the mate to remove them, the attention of the mate had 
been directed b}^ a deck hand before the disaster to a life- 
belt that was falling apart in the rack. This man pulled 
down some of the life-preservers at the time of the dis- 
aster and noticed holes in them. 

PRISONER'S BAIL CONTINUED. 

Lundberg, who had been held in $500 bail as a wit- 
ness, was not recalled during the day. His bail was 
continued, so that he would be kept on hand until the 
inquest was concluded. 

Evidence was multiplied that the "General Slocum" 
was not equipped in any way for fighting a fire. Cheap 
new fire hose had been provided this year, but it had not 
been tested in any way, either by the inspectors or the 
officers of the boat. 

When the emergency arose, the hose could not be 
used ; it v/as kinked and twisted, the coupling to the 
standpipe slid off and the nozzle could not be attached. 
According to the testimony of the mate this hose cost 
sixteen cents a foot, The commodore of the Knicker- 
bocker fleet, Captain J. A. Pease, who had not heard this 
figure given, declared with emphasis that good hose could 
not be bought at that price. 

Great progress was made during the day, and at the 



22U THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 

conclusion of the session Mr. Garvan said lie hoped to 
bring the inquest to an end next da}'. 

The Rev. Julius Schultz, pastor of St. Luke's 
Lutheran Cliurch, of Erie, Pa., was called to the witness 
stand when the inquest opened. He told a graphic story 
of the panic on the " Slocuni " on June 15. He had 
attended the excursion, and his first warning was the 
sight of flames shooting out of a gangway. There had 
been up to that time no alarms and no signals, and the 
children were romping about. IMany of them were on the 
promenade deck, playing bean bag and jumping rope. 

He saw the wife of the Rev. George Haas advancing, 
apparentU^ in great excitement, and he went aft, where 
there was the greatest crowd, to see if he could render 
any assistance. 

CALLED LOUDLY FOR HELP. 

" My first apprehension of real danger," continued 
Mr. Schultz, " was when I saw a deck hand come running 
from the cabin. Women and children rushed to him and 
called to him for help. He brushed them aside and 
answered their appeals gruffly. He pushed through the 
crowd, mounted the rail and jumped overboard. Several 
little children then jumped into the water. I held one 
girl back and told her to wait for a tug, which was 
approaching. 

"I pulled down a life preserver and as the strap 
broke with the weight, I thought it was useless and 
threw it down. All were strapped to the ceiling bej'ond 
the reach of the women. I saw but one deck hand 
besides the one who jumped; this one had a hose, but 
no water was coming from it." 

Benjamin F. Conklin, for twelve years chief engi- 



THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 223 

neer of the "Slocum," made several important admissions. 
He said the only steam pipe leaving the engine room led 
to the fire room, and there was no valve by which steam 
could be forced into the forward cabin in case of the out- 
break of fire. 

Q. Do you know that the law required steam pipes 
to each compartment in the hold ? A. No, sir ; I never 
heard of it. 

Q. Were there any hand pumps on board ? A. Yes, 
two, forward and aft ? 

Q. Were they worked in the fire ? A. Not that I 
know of 

RUNNING VERY SLOWLY. 

He said the " Slocum" had been running very slowly 
up the river at a rate of about six miles an hour, and had 
been stopped several times on accountof passing vessels. 
The speed was not increased going through Hell Gate. 
He was notified by Flanagan that there was a fire for- 
ward, but nothing was said about pumps. He told the 
assistant engineer to take charge of the engine. He then 
went to the donkey engine to connect it with the pump, 
and he remained there until he was driven away by the 
smoke. He had no notice that the pumps were not 
working. 

Q. Was the hose attached to the standpipe? A. 
We always kept it so. 

Q. Could you tell if the hose was being used ? A. 
That was my impression. 

Q. Isn't it a fact that as soon as you had turned on 
the water you jumped on a passing tug? A. No, sir. 

Q. What did you do after you deserted your post ? 
A. I tried to assist some passengers ; some of them after- 



22A THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 

ward picked me up and carried me over to a tug or some 
other vessel. 

Q. That was before the " Slocum " reached North 
Brother Island ? A. No ; it was after she had struck. 

Q- Do you know if any fire drills wen^ held on the 
"Slocum" this j^ear? A. I do not. 

In answer to questions of jurors, Conkliu said he had 
not seen or heard of Captain Van Schaick after the fire 
began. 

The nozzle of the fire hose was i }i inches ; he had 
not been sufficiently interested totestif the hose and pipe 
could stand the pressure. He was certain that United 
States inspectors had not tested the hose. While he had 
not examined the hose, he knew that it was similar to 
that used on other steamers. 

DECLARES IT WAS GOOD. 

*' How did the fire apparatus on the " General Slo 
cum " compare with that on other river boats?" asked 
Terence J. AIcAIanus, counsel for the Knickerbocker 
Steamboat Companj\ 

"It was as good as any I ever saw on an}- boat I was 
ever on," replied Conkliu. 

" Do you think the same of the crew ?" inquired Mr. 
Garvan, with a sarcastic smile. 

"So far as I know," was the non-committal answer. 

Conkliu thought that this year's boiler inspection 
had been extremely careful and rigid. When he had 
concluded ]Mr. McAIanus, on behalf of the steamboat com- 
pany', made the admission that no new life preservers had 
been placed on the "Slocum" since 1895. Former Judge 
A. J. Dittenhoefer, personal counsel for Mr. Barnaby, 



THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 225 

president of the company, said lie wonld make no ad- 
mission, as lie had no personal knowledge. 

Miss. M. C. Hall, bookkeeper, stenographer and cash- 
ier of the company, seemed distressed when she was again 
placed on the witness stand to snbmit to questions about 
the erasure of the name of the "Grand Republic " from 
bills for life preservers, Mr. McManus declared that 
there was no necessity for examining her, in view of his 
admission, 

" It looks as though the officers were trying to shirk 
responsibility and to place it on the corporation," com- 
mented Coroner Berry. 

"We are not attempting to shirk," cried Mr. Ditten- 
hoefer. " We are standing on our rights." 

"Any officer of any corporation could be placed in 
this same position," interjected Mr. McManus. 

GETTING AT THE TRUTH. 

"We wish to get to the truth," continued Mr. Ditten- 
hoefer, "and the Court should not show animus." 

Miss Hall had to answer the questions. She said 
she had been unable to find other original bills from 
which she had erased the name of an individual boat. 

Q. Tell why you made the alteration. A. I took 
the name off because I am very busy in July and August 
and I am apt to make a mistake by charging everything 
to one vessel, so I removed the name to find out what 
portion should be charged to the " Grand Republic." 

Q. (By a juror). How came you to take off the 
name before you found out ? A. I understood that part 
of the life-preservers were for the " Slocum." 

Q. How did you understand it ? A. I suppose from 
something Captain Pease said. 

N.Y. 15 



22(5 THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 

Miss Hall said she believed Captaiu Pease had said 
the " Slocum " needed life-preservers. Then she saw 
him holding a sample and he said he would buy some. 

" How do you get 3'otir accounts straight by guess- 
ing? " asked a juror. 

"The}'' are not always straight," Miss Hall replied 
helplessl}'. 

She could say only that she had understood from 
Captain Pease that some of the life-preservers were to 
go to the " Slocum." She had not learned to the con- 
trary until last. It merely had not suited her con- 
venience to alter the names on other bills. She could 
not explain why she had just told Mr. Garvan that all 
the alterations had been made more than a year before, 
while one of the bills was dated May 9th; 

CALLED ON TO EXPLAIN. 

James K. Atkinson, secretary of the companj'', was 
recalled. At the outset he did not wish to identify a list 
of stockholders which he had prepared, saying : " It has 
been in other hands since it left mine and I wouldn't 
want to take any chances now, as there have been so 
many suggestions made." 

Mr. Barnaby was then called upon for explanations 
of his original testimony. On Monday he said he had 
been informed by "everybody connected with the boat" 
that the life-preservers represented by the five bills in 
evidence had been bought for the " Slocum." With 
great hesitation he declared that he had not obtained the 
information from everybody. 

Q. Who told you ? A. (After a pause). I was told 
by Miss Hall first. 

Q. By au}^ one else ? A, Yes, by some one who 



THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 227 

had seen Captain Van Scliaick. I think it was Mr. 
Parks. He said Van Schaick had spoken to him about 
Having new life-preservers on the boat. 

Q. Can you tell us any one else ? A. Miss Hall 
said they had all been bought, 

Mr. Dittenhoefer advised his client not to answer 
further questions and not to be bulldozed, but Mr. Bar- 
naby continued in the same strain. He had not said 
originally that only part of the life-preservers had been 
placed on the "Slocum." His understanding had been 
that all were intended for that boat. 

"On what did you found your understanding?" 
pursued Mr. Garvan. 

**My advice is not to answer," exclaimed Mr. Dit- 
tenhoefer. 

DOING HIS LEVEL BEST. 

Mr. Barnaby seem distressed. Mr. Garvan stuck to 
this line, saying he had asked for the books and had 
obtained instead these bills, which Miss Hall had under- 
stood to represent in part material for the "Slocum," 
and which the president had asserted to be wholly for 
the "Slocum," until there was proof that all had gone 
to the " Grand Republic." Mr: Barnaby declared, " I 
am doing my level best to find out." 

" Don't you know that men from my office went to 
the * Grand Republic ' the other night and counted every 
one of the new life-preservers represented by these 
bills ? " asked Mr. Garvan. 

While Mr. Barnaby was answering in the negative, 
Mr. McManus said : 

"Your men also stole our log book." 

Mr. Garvan seemed annoyed as he retorted : " I 



228 THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 

say that this man came here in bad faith and tried to 
prove that life preservers bought for the " Grand Repnb- 
lic" had been placed on the "Slocum." 

To a juror Mr. Barnaby said he understood his 
responsibilities, but he had left the purchase of supplies 
to the captains of the two boats. 

" Did 3^ou understand that sixteen cent hose would 
not fight fire ? " was Mr. Garvan's last question. 

" I know little about hose," was the reply. 

" There's something doing up forward," was a remark 
Charles A. Lang overheard on the deck as the boat was 
passing Fift3--seventh street, but he told the Coroner he 
didn't see any fire until Ninety-fourth street, and he 
couldn't be sure that the remark had any real signifi- 
cance. He was the first of the passengers on the excur- 
sion to be placed on the stand. He said he saw no effort 
on the part of au}- of the crew to lower the boats or do 
anj^thing toward protecting life. 

FUEL IN THE STOREROOM. 

Oil, paint, hay, charcoal, lamps and other inflamma- 
ble material were kept in the storeroom forward, where 
many persons believed the fire originated, and the door 
was not kept locked. This was the testimony of Walter 
Paine, a negro porter. He filled two dozen lamps in the 
storeroom while the steamer was at the Third street pier. 
He said that he then brought up his shoe-cleaning para- 
phernalia, and was standing near the forward gangway 
with the mate when someone notified Flanagan that 
there was something wrong in the hold forward. Both 
men ran forward and were driven back b}^ the smoke. 

"The mate shouted througb '.e tube to the pilot 
house," said Paine, " aud then I saw him at the hose. It 



THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 229 

was twisted up and I tried to get the kinks out of it. The 
water only got three or four feet through the hose when 
it burst loose from the standpipe. The water was run- 
ning all over the deck, so I ran to the standpipe to 
shut it off." 

Paine said he pulled down three or four rows of life 
preservers and distributed them. He couldn't swim, but 
he didn't put on a life preserver. He was rescued while 
clinging to the paddle wheel, 

PROBING THE FIRE'S ORIGIN. 

He said in the storeroom were two dozen lamps, 
three barrels of oil, one of machine, one of cylinder and 
one of mineral sperm oil, two or three barrels of glasses 
packed in soft hay, half a dozen empty barrels, some 
charcoal, some old life preservers, old canvas and other 
things he never examined. This room he said was kept 
closed but not locked. Two or three other men were in 
there on that Wednesday morning, but he couldn't give 
their names. 

He said he lighted a lantern in the storeroom to see 
to clean his lamps, but he was sure that he put out the 
match before he threw it away. 

Thomas Ryan, who worked at the chowder counter, 
said he had pulled down life preservers after hearing of 
the fire. He placed one on the steward of the boat, who 
was carr3dng a big bag of money. The steward was 
drowned, Ryan said he had helped a boy ashore, 

George Owens, who had charge of the chowder coun- 
ter, said he had not seen any member of the crew after 
they had failed to make the hose work, 

Mrs, Maria Behrends, of No. 88 Third street, was 
the first woman sufferer called upon tp testify. She said 



280 



THE STEAMBOAT A DEATH TRAP. 



the "Slocum" had just passed Blackwell's Island when 
there was a cry of "Fire!" followed by a panic. The 
officers and employees of the boat did nothing for the 
passengers, she said. She tried to find her children. 
She held herself on the rail until a tug came and rescued 
her. One of her daughters was saved ; two others lost 
their lives, 




CHAPTER XII. 
WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS. 

WILLIAM W, TREMBLY testified that lie had been 
engaged as a deck hand on the "Slocum" on 
May 20. Before that he was a waiter. There had been 
no fire drills on the boat. When his attention was called 
to the fire he helped the assistant engineer to pull down 
the hose, which was in a spiral. He tried to attach the 
nozzle, but could not, and no water flowed. 

All he knew about the location of the "Slocum" was 
that she had passed Blackwell's Island, No attempt was 
made to launch the lifeboats, 

A, S, Gilbert, counsel for Inspector Lundberg, drew 
out some very damaging facts about the condition of the 
life preservers. 

Trembly said he had pulled thirty or forty lifebelts 
from the racks and thrown them to passengers. He 
noticed holes in several of them, and he believed with 
the vibration of the boat the rusty wires had cut through 
the canvas. Before the disaster he had called Mate 
Flanagan's attention to one preserver in a particularly 
torn condition, and he had been told to remove it. He 
had not reported other damaged preservers that he had 
seen, because it had not been his business. He could 
not help seeing the holes when he had handled the life 
preservers. 

Captain John A, Pease, who is quite deaf, said he 
had sailed on the " Grand Republic " since she was built 
in 1878. He superintended the building of the "vSlo- 

281 



282 WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS. 

cum" and had her put iu order this spring. He had 
nothing to do with the life preservers on board, and he 
did not know whether any of them were stuffed with bull- 
rushes. He had obtained three hundred and lift}' new 
life preservers for the " Grand Republic" this year. ^ 

Captain Pease said he overhauled the "Slocum" 
this spring, but supervised onl^^ the hull and machiuer}'. 
Captain \^au Schaick, he said, looked after the life paving 
and fire apparatus. He said positively he never had au}' 
talk with Miss Hall about life preservers for the "Slo- 
cum," thus contradicting the bookkeeper. 

Captain Pease said he never bought any fire hose 
for the "Slocum," and when Mr. Garvan asked him, "Did 
you ever buy any good fire hose for sixteen cents a foot?" 
lie replied: 

CANNOT BE BOUGHT. 

"No, I don't think anybody can." 

Sixteen cents was the price paid for the " Slocum's" 
hose, according to the mate, but a hose which was used 
ever}' day to fill the tanks was bought at a list of $1.50 a 
foot with fifty and ten off, according to former Fire Mar- 
shal Freel. 

Thomas Henry Barrett, United States Inspector of 
Boilers for the Port of New York, made the positive 
statement in the opening of his testimou}' that the 
" General Slocum" had no hold, and that consequently 
the provisions in the United States statutes providing 
for valves to ever}' compartment in a steamer's hold to 
flood it with steam in the event of fire did not apph'. He 
said John W. Fleming, subordinate to him, made an in- 
spection of the "Slocum" ])oilers this spring. 



WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS. 233 

" The Sloe um" in my opinion, had no hold," said the 
witness. 

Q. Will you. show us anything in the law which 
says that steamers of this kind have no hold ? A. I can- 
not. 

Henry A. Wise, Assistant United States District 
Attorney, took the witness in hand first. 

"Here is a ship drawing seven feet of water, with the 
engines on the main deck," he said. " Would 3^ou say 
the rooms forward and aft of the fire room underneath 
the engines were cabin or hold ?" He enumerated the 
rooms — kitchen, dining room, storage room. Mr. Barrett 
said what he considered the hold of a ship is the part 
that the cargo is put in and it is sealed by hatches. 

\A^OULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD THING. 

Representative Goulden, one of the jurors, asked 
Barrett what would have been the objection to putting a 
pipe in that storeroom. 

" None at all," said the witness, and he admitted 
that it would have been a good thing. 

Robert Jacob, a shipbuilder, who was one of the jury, 
then took the witness in hand and caused Mr. Barrett to 
admit that there was no such thing as a ship without a 
hold. 

Q. By Mr. Jacob: — This vessel carried barrels of 
glasses and other supplies for her excursions. Where 
do you put these things ? Wouldn't you put them down 
in the hold? A. Well, I don't know where I'd put them. 

Q. Did you ever see a ship without a hold. Colonel ? 
A. No, sir. 

Following his chief John W. Fleming, the United 
States boiler inspector who inspected the^'Slocum" at 



284 WORTHLESS MKK PRESERVERS. 

the same time as Tyinidbcrg came on the stand and an- 
nounced that he was \Qvy deaf. He said he and Lund- 
berg worked separate!}'. lie tested the boilers and 
engines and found everything in first class condition. 

Q. Did vou put pressure on the fire hose with the 
donkey engine ? A. No. 

"Didn't 3'ou find any forward compartment in your 
inspection ?" asked the lawyer. 

" I didn't go there at all," admitted the witness. '' I 
don't know what is forward of the engine room or aft. I 
didn't go there." 

"Did the 'Slocum' have any arrangement of valves 
leading from the boiler to any part of the ship to flood it 
in case of fire?'' asked Mr. Garvan. 

" No, sir," answered Fleming, his voice rising to a 
shout, "because if she did it would be a mistake. She 
didn't need them." 

PITIABLE CONDITION OF THE CAPTAIN. 

Crippled for life, his nerves shattered and his mental 
anguish so great that he could scarcely contain himself 
at any mention of the disaster to his steamboat. Captain 
William Van Schaick, of the "General Slocuni," was in 
a pitiable condition at the Lebanon Hospital. He was 
still confined to his bed, and the surgeons regarded his 
condition as serious. 

The veteran river and harbor nagivator, who had 
been in command of the "Slocum" from the day she was 
launched, had made all his arrangements to retire from 
sea life at the close of this season. His record had been 
unmarred up to the day of the great disaster. He had 
carried i,5CX),ooo passengers in safety up and down the 
river during his long service. 



WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS. 235 

Captain Van Schaick had invested all his savings in 
a small farm near Troy, and there he had planned to 
make his home at the close of navigation next fall, to 
remain until the end of his days. 

Police Commissioner McAdoo received and made 
public reports from thirty-six precinct captains as to the 
general provisions for the safe handling of excursion 
crowds at the piers in as many precincts. 

The reports stated that general conditions were good, 
but in some instances sharp criticism was made of the 
narrow stairways on excursion boats and of the class of 
employes on many of the vessels. Captain Dean, of the 
harbor police, recommended that the carrying capacity 
of many boats be cut down and that storerooms for oil, 
paints and other inflammable materials, as well as the 
boiler rooms and galleys, be lined with fireproof material. 

A TON OF DYNAMITE. 

Great charges of dynamite — a ton in all — exploded 
under the surface of the East River in the vicinity of 
North Brother Island kept the water churned into a 
yeasty mass for hours, and brought a few bodies to the 
surface, although not so quickly as in the case of the 
cannon fired across the surface of the river the day before. 

In all thirty-six bodies were found. As soon as re- 
covered they were placed in metal coffins, hermetically 
sealed and these will not be opened again. All identi- 
fications were now made from the clothing and jewelry of 
the dead. 

The method designed by Police Commissioner 
McAdoo for ascertaining the names of those still missing 
as well as all those who have lost friends or relatives by 
the ''Slocum" disaster was put into effect. A force of one 



236 WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS. 

hundred policemen, all o{ whom spoke German, were 
sent through St. Mark's parish with instructions to make 
a house to house canvass and to obtain the names of all 
who were on board the ''Slocum" the day she burned. A 
complete roll would, it was believed, be obtained in this 
way. 

Several wrangles marked the inquest on the second 
day. Counsel for the Knickerbocker Steamboat Com- 
pany started the trouble by saying : 

" The officers of this compan}^ are trying to shirk 
responsibility and place it on the corporation." 

Counsel for President Barnaby : " There is no at- 
tempt to shirk any responsibilit3\" 

Coroner Berry : " It looks that way." 

ALL ANIMUS DENIED. 

Counsel for Mr. Barnaby: "The presiding officer 
should not show his animus as he has done continuously 
since this inquest began." 

Coroner Berrj' : " There is no animus, but we want 
the truth here, and I am giving you every possible op- 
portunity to bring out the truth. It is for the jury to 
fix the responsibility." 

Driven to desperation b\' the manner in which As- 
sistant District-Attorney Garvan swept aside the trivial 
and futile attempts of the officers of the company to show 
that five different sets of life preservers had been bought 
for the "General Slocum " in and since the year 1S92, 
the lawyers representing President Barnaby, of the 
Knickerbocker Steamboat Company, those representing 
the corporation in its interests as distinguished from 
those of the officers, and the lawyer representing the 
Government inspector responsible for the condition 



WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS. 237 

of the life saving appliances, fouglit bitterly among 
themselves and in united array against the Assistant- 
District Attorney. 

The scenes witnessed at the inquest into the "Slo- 
cum " disaster differed from anything of the sort ever 
seen in New York before. The lawyers who were present, 
except Mr. Garvan and the representative of the United 
States District Attorney, were there by courtesy, but their 
attitude became insolently aggressive, and on several occa- 
sions the resulting wrangles were unseemly and decidedly 
unusual, culminating in the criticism of Coroner Berry 
by Judge Dittenhoeffer after a series of attacks of like 
sort upon the Assistant District Attorney. 

BITTER AND WITTY RETORTS. 

The Coroner acted with great temperance of demeanor 
and a vast consideration for the "lawyers for the de- 
fence," as they are clearly to be considered by their atti- 
tude. But Assistant District Attorney Garvan pelted his 
opponents with retorts bitterly witty at times and 
always effective. 

He was not swayed for a moment from the line of 
investigation he began, although hampered at every 
step by the exasperating and filibustering methods of the 
opposing lawyers, who were evidently attempting to 
draw the inquest out to a great length. 

The reason back of the efforts of the lawyer repre- 
senting the corporation to prevent the evasion of respon- 
sibility by the legal representative of President Barnaby 
is simple. 

Should it be shown that the burning of the " Slo- 
cum" was due to negligence on the part of the owners 
before the ship left her pier on Wednesday, June 15, or 



238 WORTHLESS LIKE PRESERVERS. 

that auy lives were lost because of that negligence prior 
to the boat's departure, the company would be responsi- 
ble and the entire property' of the company could be 
attached, as well as the assets of the stockholders. 

It was for this reason that the law\^er representing 
the company fenced at the inquest to prevent any 
" shirking of responsibility " by the president. 

In turn they were not unwilling that the entire re- 
sponsibility should be thrown upon the inspector, as this 
would free the compau}^ from responsibilit}^ and save them 
from financial disaster. 

ALL INVOLVED IN A WRANGLE. 

The attornc}^ of the inspector watched with hawklike 
vigilance any attempt on the part of either of the lawyers 
to shift the burden his w^y, and the result was a constant 
bickering which reached a climax when all became in- 
volved in a wrangle which lasted for several minutes. 

Some skilful generalship was required under such 
circumstances to lead a combined attack upon the Dis- 
trict Attorney's representative, but this was frequently 
accomplished. 

The representative of the Knickerbocker Steamboat 
Company was forced to admit that no life preservers had 
been bought for the "Slocum" since 1895. 

This was done in order to save Miss M. C. Hall from 
further torture upon the witness stand. When she ap- 
peared she confessed that she had been unable to find any 
other bills altered by erasures and substitution of names 
such as had been shown in the bills for life preservers 
made out in the name of the "Grand Republic," and 
afterward changed to the " General Slocum." 

It had become evident that any further questioning 



WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS. 239 

of the witness would serve only to deepen the impression 
already made, and the action of the counsel for the com- 
pany in admitting that no life preservers had been bought 
since 1895 saved Miss Hall further examination. 

Religious questions entered largely into the disas- 
ter, as may be seen from the following discussion by one 
of our prominent journals : 

*' Very naturally, the question of the origin of evil, 
brought anew to the front by the awful disaster to a Sun- 
day school party, interests many of our correspondents. 
It has interested and has puzzled men from the begin- 
ning of their reasoning faculty ; yet they are no nearer 
to the solution of it than was the earliest savage who 
sought to conciliate the mysterious Power over the uni- 
verse. 

LUNATICS ASKING QUESTIONS. 

" In times past men have gone mad in their search 
for the key to the mystery, and even now the lunatic 
asylums contain many men and women who imagine that 
they have cleared away the myster}^, and that is why they 
are there. 

" Some of our correspondents complain that in writ- 
ing of the subject a few days ago we gave up the question, 
as undeniably we did, and as everybody outside of a mad- 
house must give it up, if he does not want to get inside. 

"For example, a sharp broker of the Cotton Ex- 
change, though good enough to contribute to us ' the 
possession of ability and iutelect,' questions our ' exer- 
cise of both or either ' in what he said. He infers that 
we dodged the question in a pusillanimous fashion : 

" ' Did you in that editorial, simply say all you dared 
to say, or did your comments describe your actual and 
honest comprehension and belief of the subject matter? 



240 WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS. 

" ' Did you withhold anything that may have been 
impressed upon you b}^ your best and broadest think- 
ing ? ' " 

" Certainly, we dared to say no more. We give up 
the question of the origin of evil. We withhold nothing, 
for we frankl}' acknowledged ignorance. The critical 
broker's 'best and broadest thinking ' nia^' go far and 
dive very deep ; but, no more than we, can he get to the 
bottom of that mysterj^ by an}- process of reasoning. 

DULL PLACE WITHOUT CHILDREN. 

" Mr. John Cadman, of Brooklyn, says, very reason- 
ably, that so far as concerns the question of the merciful- 
ness of a personal God there is no difference ' between a 
thousand innocent children being burned to death or 
drowned by the burning of a steamboat, and the same 
number of equally innocent children d3'ing on that day 
in a thousand different homes all over the world.' With- 
out children, continues j\Ir. Cadman, 'heaven would seem 
to most of us a dull, uninteresting place where few would 
care to go.' 

" Besides, he argues, if the children on the ' Slocum ' 
had been permitted to live to old age or middle life, who 
can tell how mau}' of them would have been led into sins 
and been a cause of greater grief to their parents than 
was their destruction in that disaster ? But if the\' had 
never existed at all they would have been saved from 
torture on that burning boat. If they were more fortun- 
ate than others in being saved from the sin of the others, 
where is justice ? The mystery remains. 

" A New York correspondent argues that as God 
gives us ' intelligence and free will we arc ourselves re- 
sponsible for the neglect of the precautions which would 



WORTHLESS LIFE PRESERVERS. 241 

have prevented the catastrophe. God could not do more 
unless He suspended all laws to make up for the gross 
carelessness of the owners, the captain, the crew and the 
inspectors.' But it was not the negligent who perished. 
The children burned and drowned had no such responsi- 
bility. But, says our pious friend, ' they escaped all the 
other pains and evils of life,' and the lawful catastrophe 
may save the rest of us from ' greater evil from another 
accident.' Is not that rather a selfish view to take of the 
destruction of hundreds of poor children ? 
DUE TO CARELESSNESS. 
" ' God,' says a new York dogmatist, ' wills no evil, 
and causes no evil ; evil comes from human disobedience 
of God's commandments.' 'The real cause' he attributes 
'to the one man who smoked in the lamp room.' Assum- 
ing that he is correct in this, is it consistent with our 
human idea of justice that the careless and disobedient 
smoker should escape and hundreds of women and child- 
ren who did not smoke should be burned as a punish- 
ment for his misdoing? That is substantially the 
question scores of our sceptical correspondents are asking 

us. 

"The theory of one reader is that ' God in taking 
away the lives of those on the 'Slocum,' chose those 
who were, no doubt, jewels in His crown' and there- 
by used His own to warn those who ought to be 
living better.' A Kingston correspondent takes the 
directly contrary view that, ' horrible as the ' Slocum ' 
disaster was, its iconoclastic side is immense ' — that is, it 
tends to destroy in men belief in ' the personal God whom 
the superstitious had set up and of whom they expect 
interference in the affairs of the world at their asking.' 

N.Y. lb 



242 WORTHLLSS LIFE PRESERVERS. 

"Finally, asks a Brooklyn correspondent, 'as none 
of these dear little children nnder the age of responsi- 
bility will be lost, is it not good of God to call to a lost 
eternity men and women who have entirely ignored 
God's invitation to accept Christ as their Saviour?' 
Besides children, it must be remembered, very many 
adults were lost in the disaster. 

"We give these opinions from among scores which 
we are receiving on this subject. After all is said, do 
they leave the mystery any the less impenetrable by 
man ? Either you must take the dogmatic theological 
explanation, purely on faith, or you must make inexo- 
rable natural law the ruler of man's destiny." 

The cry of man's anguish went up unto God : 

"Lord, take away pain I 
The shadow that darkens the world Thou hast made, 

The close coiling chain 
That strangles the heart ; the burden that weighs 

On the wings that would soar — 
God, take away pain from the world Thou hast made, 

That it love Thee the more !" 

Then answered the Lord to the cry of the world ■ 

"Shall I take away pain, 
And with it the power of the world to endure, 

Made strong by the strain ? 
Shall I take away pity that knits heart to heart 

And sacrifice high ? 
Will ye lose all your heroes that lift from the fire 

White brows to the sky ? 
Shall I take away love that redeems with a price 

And smiles at its loss ? 
Can ye spare from your lives that would climb unto mine 

The Christ on the Cross ? " 



CHAPTER XIII. 
VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 

IMPORTANT disclosures were made again during the 
* Coroner's inquest regarding tlie conduct of tlie crew 
of the " General Slocum " at the time of the fire and the 
measures taken by those in control of the vessel to save 
passengers. Wreckers raised the hulk of the "Slocum" 
and towed it to flats, where it was beached. 

Several bodies were recovered and the work of 
identification proceeded slowly. Nothing was reported 
to change materially the estimate of the total loss of 
life that appeared to be over i,ooo, Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, 
in announcing that the relief fund was now about 
$90,000, gave his opinion that sufficient money had been 
contributed to carry out the purposes of the fund. Mem- 
bers of the jury selected by Coroner Joseph I. Berry, of 
The Bronx, to investigate the " Slocum " disaster de- 
clared that the evidence already before them would 
enable them to determine the responsibility for the 
accident. 

Captain William Van Schaick, commander of the 
"Slocum," was carried into the Coroner's temporary 
court room, at the corner of Bathgate avenue and 177th 
street. He was on a stretcher and was in great pain 
from his fractured heel, and Assistant District Attorney 
Francis P. Garvan did not put a question to him, but 
had him carried back to the Lebanon Hospital after a 
short delay. 

Martin Cragh, the first witness, was a deck hand on 
the "Slocum." He said he had never been through a 

243 



24 4 X'ALOROUS DEKUS BV RESCUERS. 

fire drill and he had not recognized the fire alarm when 
he had heard it. He had tried to prevent a panic, but 
as soon as the boat was beached he had Jumped over- 
board. 

James Collins, a policeman, attached to the " Mor- 
risania district, testified that he had seen the "Slocum" 
afire off the foot of 13 2d street. The boat was then 
blazing fiercely, and he called up Police Headquarters 
and asked to have a fireboat sent at once. He found a 
rowboat and followed the "Slocum " to rescue the women 
and children. When he reached the excursion steamer 
she was ablaze from stem to stern, on all three decks. 

"Did you see any life-preservers?" asked Mr. Gar- 
van. 

"Yes, sir," was the reply. "Almost all of them 
were torn and cork was dropping out of them." 
MAY HAVE LOST HIS HEAD. 
Collins said he thought the "Slocum" should have 
been beached on the west side of the river some distance 
below North Brother Island. 

" Then the captain beached her in the wrong place 
on purpose?" suggested Terence J. McManus, counsel 
for the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company. 

" I don't say that," replied the witness, "but hv. may 
have lost his head." 

Policeman Herbert C. Farrell, who accompanied 
Collins, agreed that a mistake had been made in not 
beaching the " Slocum " earlier. There was a good mud 
bank to run into at 129th street, he said, with mud flats 
extending fully fifty or sixty feet from shore. 

The depth made that location specially desirable, 
and Farrell insisted that if he had been the captain, that 



VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 246 

would have been the place that he would have landed. 
Farrell has had experience in sailing small boats in the 
East River for twenty years. 

Captain John Van Gilder was called as an expert. 
He is in the employ of the New York, New Haven & 
Hartford Railroad Company, and he has been a pilot for 
twenty-seven years, having had charge of several 
of the big excursion boats in New York harbor. After 
the disaster he went over the route taken by the " Slo- 
cum" with E. N. Weaver, pilot of the wrecked steamer. 
He was informed by Weaver that the first alarm of fire 
had come when the " Slocum " was about three lengths 
north of the Black Spar buoy, on the sunken meadows. 
Weaver had told him that there was a strong flood tide. 

WOULD HAVE LANDED ELSEWHERE. 

" What course would you have taken if you had 
commanded the 'Slocum,' "inquired Mr. Garvan. 

" I should have gone from two to two and a half 
points west," replied Captain Van Gilder, " and I should 
have landed at Port Morris, about the foot of 130th street, 
either with the port or the starboard side ashore." 

Captain Van Gilder's conclusion was that if the 
" Slocum " had been beached at that point, with the port 
side on the bank, the fire would have been driven by the 
wind forward and ashore and the steamer would have not 
have been consumed so quickly. 

In response to questions put by jurors, Captain Van 
Gilder said fire drills were necessary on a passenger 
boat, and that they should be held every day at first. 
Local inspectors are primarily responsible for all safety 
appliances, though there must be a general supervision 
by the master of the boat. 



24G VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 

Q. If 3'ou sent a mate to buy fire hose and he made 
the purchase at the rate of sixteen cents a foot, would 
you assume that it was good without a test ? A. I never 
heard of good fire hose at sixteen cents a foot. 

Q. Would 3^ou receive sixteen cent hose on your 
boat ? A. Not without a protest. 

Q. Would you disregard an order from an assistant 
United States inspector and appeal to his ofhcial superior ? 
A. Oh, no. I would obey any order, as I could not get 
a license if I did not. 

COVERS EASILY MILDEWED. 

The captain agreed with a juror that nine-tenths of 
the life preservers when exposed to dampness have their 
covers mildewed in one season. With care a preserver 
ma}'' last in good condition for many years, and the ordi- 
nary life of one should be seven or eight years. He was 
surprised to hear that there was any question that all 
portions of a vessel below the main deck were the hold, 
although he said the government officials were liable to 
" find almost an3'thing." 

Ruben A. Tudor, captain of a sloop, who followed 
the " Slocuni " and who saved several lives, said he saw 
many women and children wearing life preservers sink 
the moment that they struck the water. 

Captain Edward Van Woert, first pilot on the "Slo- 
cuni," admitted with evident reluctance in reply to Mr. 
Garvan's questions, that the life preservers on the " Slo- 
cuni " dated back to 1891, when the steamer was 
launched. When the disaster occurred the lifeboats were 
not lowered. He did not recall having seen any fire 
drills. Captain Van Schaick had given orders to beach 
the "Slocum " at North Brother Island when the fire was 



VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 247 

raging and had then disappeared from the pilot house. 
The pilot had himself ordered the destruction of about 
fifty life preservers this year when he saw that they were 
in a bad condition. He thought that the course taken 
had been the best one possible. 

Mrs. H. W. Turner, of No. 2649 Eighth avenue, 
testified that she had been in the '^Slocum " disaster and 
had tried to use three life preservers, and each of them 
had torn and she had to throw them away. She jumped 
to a tug, holding her child in her arms. Her nephew 
and her sister died. 

RIVER STREWN WITH GRANULATED CORK. 

Miss Lulu McKibben, who had charge of the tele- 
phone at North Brother Island, and who without instruc- 
tions gave timely orders to hospitals in New York, 
was called as a witness to establish the bad condition of 
the life preservers. She said she had seen the river 
strewn with granulated cork when the "Slocum" was 
burning. She waded out into the water and saved two 
persons. 

Joseph S. Gaffney, chief engineer at North Brother 
Island, said he had seen the burning steamer approach- 
ing, and he had brought out the island hose to fight the 
flames. When the " Slocum " beached, blazing nearly 
from stem to stern, he devoted himself to life saving, 
wading deep into the water, and using a long fire hook 
to drag in persons who were afloat. He helped to rescue 
four or five. 

" I went to save a woman," he said. "She was wear- 
ing a life preserver, and I saw it break in the middle and 
float away from her. She was saved." 

Capt. Henry Wallabar, chief clerk on North Brother 



218 VALOROUS DEEDS OF RESCUERS. 

Island, said he had seized a life preserver around a 
woman to pull her out of the water and it had torn into 
two pieces, leaving in his hand what he first believed to 
be sawdust, but which proved to be granulated cork. The 
woman was almost dead, but was revived after long 
efforts. The shore was lined with cork from the life pre- 
servers. 

Paul Liebenow, with his head swathed in bandages 
and his hands badly burned, said he had tried in vain to 
pull down life preservers at the time of the disaster. He 
knew that others had implored the captain to beach the 
"Slocum" at the sunken meadows. He heard of the 
fire when he was between Ninetieth and Ninety-second 
streets. Among those killed were two of his children, a 
sister, a sister-in-law, a niece and a nephew. 

PULLED DO\VN BY LIFE PRESERVER. 

Henry Hordkopf, of No. 343 Rivington street, whose 
mother was lost, said he had noticed the fire as the 
"Slocum" passed the northern end of Blackwell's Island. 
Miss Annie Kip, of No. 1894 Third avenue, said she had 
gone on the excursion with a cousin, who was drowned. 
She obtained a life preserver but found in the water that 
it pulled her down, and she clung to one of the " Slo- 
cum's" paddles until she was saved. 

John L. Wade, engineer aboard the tug "J. W. 
Wade," which he owns, told with the utmost modesty the 
story of the rescue of many lives at the time of tlie dis- 
aster. He followed the "Slocum," picking up many who 
dropped overboard, and he beached his tug under the 
"Slocum's" stern, so as to pick up as man}' as possible. 
He did not stop to consider the risk he ran or the dam- 
age to his boat. His instructions to his men were to 



VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 249 

look out for the living and not to bother with the dead. 
He felt certain that one of the engineers had stuck to his 
post to the end and that the captain and one of the pilots 
had been among the last to jump. 

When he tried to pull aboard a young woman a life 
preserver that she wore broke into four pieces, though it 
kept her afloat. He went out of his way to say that the 
mate of the " Slocum," Edward Flanagan, had done noth- 
ing to help anybody. He thought that Captain Van 
Schaick had beached the boat in the best place possible. 
CHEAP PRICE MEANS CHEAP HOSE. 

One of the jurors questioned Captain Wade about 
sixteen cent fire hose. He said he had never heard of 
good hose at that price. The best he had been able to do 
for his own boat was to obtain a length of fifty feet for 
$25. 

Mary McCann, a bright looking girl of seventeen, 
was the next witness. She was convalescing from scarlet 
fever on June 15, when she saw the burning boat beached. 
She swam out five times and brought in six little children 
in her arms. The last time she started her skirt had been 
torn off, and as she was near shore she lost consciousness, 
and she, too, had to be rescued. 

Edwin Robinson, a negro, said he had been assistant 
cook on the ''Slocum." He had been specially warned 
not to light matches in the forward cabin where the fire 
occurred. All he did when the boat was beached was to 
save himself. 

The following statement from a well-known news- 
paper will be of interest to the reader. It is dated June 
25th, 1904 : 

" The Federal Grand Jury has been called for Thurs- 



26(1 



VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 



day (Tunc 30tU) to consider the " Slocnm " disaster and 
to fix the criminal responsibility. Representatives of t le 
coveninient have watched the developments during the 
Coroner's inquest and are familiar with all the testimony. 
The hull of the burned vessel was inspected yesterday 
by representatives of the local and federal government. 
Conditions disclosed bore out the testimony as to useless 
fire hose and life preservers. 

"One body was found in the hull, and evidence that 
many were completely incinerated was found in the shape 
of melted jewelry. The Coroner's jury has heard suf- 
ficient evidence, and is ready to fix the responsibility for 
the disaster. It will visit the wreck on Monday. 
RELIEF FUND SUFFICIENT. 
"Contributions still continued to come in from sym- 
pathizers, notwithstanding the statement of Mr. Jacob 
H Schiff that the relief fund was already sufficient. 

" "After a long conference with District Attorney 
Jerome, Assistant District Attorney Francis P. Garvan 
and United States District Attorney Burnett, Coroner 
Joseph I. Berry, of the Bronx, announced that the plan 
to close the iiKiuest on Monday in the case of the victims 
on the 'General Slocum' had been abandoned. Instead 
of completing the testimony at that time the jurors will 
spend the day in making a personal inspection of the 
hulk of the burned steamer. 

"The jurors were instructed to assemble at eleven 
o'clock on Monday in the armory of the Second Battery, 
at 177th street and Bathgate avenue, where the Coroner 
has been holding court. Several automobiles will be 
provided t., take the jurors to a ferry boat, which will 
land them close to where the hulk of the ' Slocum now 



VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 251 

lies. The witnesses subpoenaed for Monday will have to 
appear on the following day, when the final testimony 
will be taken and the case will go to the jury. 

" Coroner Berry does not believe that much more 
testimony need be given at the inquest. Substantially 
all the survivors of the crew have told their stories, pas- 
sengers have described the cowardice of those from whom 
they expected aid, scores have explained the condition of 
the fire fighting apparatus on the boat, and experts have 
discussed Captain William Van Schaick's actions after 
the discovery of the fire had been reported to him. Mr. 
Garvan had a reason for wishing to have the stories of 
the deckhands all placed on record, but neither he nor 
Coroner Berry thinks it worth while to pile up cumula- 
tive testimony from other sources. 

CAN FIX RESPONSIBILITY. 

"All of the Jurors are men of recognized ability and 
the Coroner is convinced that they have heard enough to 
place the responsibility where it belongs. If they deter- 
mine that the deaths of the victims were due to the care- 
lessness of anybody criminal proceedings must *ollow. 
As the disaster happened on a steamer the Federal court 
must act. A session of the United States Grand Jury 
has been called for next Thursday to consider the case, 
under section 5,344 of the Revised Statutes of the United 
States, which reads : — 

"Every captain, engineer, pilot or other person 
employed on any steamboat or vessel by whose miscon- 
duct, negligence or inattention to his duties on such ves- 
sel the life of any person is destroyed, and every owner, 
inspector or other public officer through whose fault, 
connivance, misconduct or violation of law the life of 



^52 VALOROUS DEEDS bY RESCUERS. 

auv perso is destroyed, shall be deemed guilty of man- 
slaughter atid, upou conviction thereof before any Cir- 
cnit Court of the United States shall be sentenced to 
confinement at hard labor for a period of not more than 

ten years. , i i j 

" As the United States District Attorney has had a 
representative at the Coroner's inquest, the testimony 
akeady taken will form the basis of the evidence to 
be submitted to tlie federal Grand Jury for indictment. 
The officials believe that the record of the inquest up to 
date warrants the indictment of many of those who have 
been called upou to testify and who have not thus far 
appeared in the role of defendants. 

STILL IN THE HOSPITAL. 
"CaptamVan Schakk, who has been under deten- 
tion as a witness since the day of the accident, has not 
vet been called to the stand in the Coroner s court on 
account of his physical condition. He is still under 
subpoena and he will be examined on Tuesday if he im- 
proves to the extent that the physicians say .he would 
sustain no injury by the effort and excitement. He is a 
patient in the Lebanon Hospital, and while he is said to 
be progressing favorably he is very weak as a resnl of 
bis 'broken heel and his burns. If he cont.uues in the 
precarious state he has been in throughout this week the 
inquest will be closed without his testimony. 

" Members of the Coroner's jury have not hesitated 
•to say they believe themselves fully conversant with the 
facts at present, and they are willing to place tl^ respou- 
sibility without hearing anything further. They a.e 
thoroughly familiar with the condition of the life-saving 
apparatus on the ' Slocnm," and with the circumstances 



VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 



253 



attending its inspection before the steamer was put in 
commission last month. 

"Frank A. Barnaby, president of the Knickerbocker 
Steamboat Company, which owned the ' Slocum ' re- 
ferred all inquiries yesterday to his counsel, former Judge 
A. J. Dittenhoefer, who declared that the evidence as it 
now stands acquits his client of all blame. 

" '.Mr. Barnaby is a very busy man,' said Mr. Dit- 
tenhoefer. 'He is connected with various corporations 
besides having large real estate interests. He must 
necessarily depend entirely upon his agents and upon 
the certificate of the United States inspectors. When 
the United States inspectors certified to Mr. Barnaby 
that the 'Slocum' was all right he had a perfect right 
to conclude that everything was in proper condition, 
especially as he had no expert knowledge on the subject 
The testimony shows that whenever his attention was 
called to any requirements he had them attended to 
immediately. He had not been aboard of the 'Slocum' 
this season, and I believe that he had been on the boat 
very few times since she was built. He trusted the 
officers of the boat.' " 

HEARD OF IT BY ACCIDENT, 

It was hardly thought that there was any person 
within many miles of New York who had not heard of 
the "Slocum" disaster, but those in charge of the 
Information Bureau at the church learned of one man 
whose wife was among the victims. Frederick Seelig 
lives at Dundee Lake, Bergen county, N. J. He visited 
the country store and picked up an old copy of a news- 
paper. In it, for the first time, he learned of the disaster 
and hastened to the city to locate his wife. 



251 VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 

He told those at the information bnrean that about 
ten days before he gave his wife money to come to the 
city and open a delicatessen store. At the same time he 
irave her two tickets for the excursion, Seelig having 
been formerly a member of St. Mark's Church. He said 
his wife opened the store somewhere on the East side and 
undoubtedly was among the excursionists. At the Unv- 
gue he found samples of her clothing which he identified 
beyond doubt. 

NOT PROPERLY EQUIPPED. 
Rotten timbers, useless fire hose, crumbling life 
preservers and other evidences of the "General Slocum's" 
condition were found, when, from the first time water was 
pumped from her hold and an examination below the 
main deck was possible. Sections of the timbers pieces 
of the hose and other exhibits were procured by Coroner 
Berry It was also discovered that the storeroom below 
the main deck, in which the fire started, had not been 
very badly burned and that all parts of the ship below 
were in fairly good condition. ,, r u i 

In the storeroom were seven barrels, all lull, and 
supposed to contain oil. In the room were also many 
camp chairs, some life preservers and dishes. Near the 
door the floor was considerably charred, showing that 
the fire had started in the room and had blazed out of the 
open door, where the flames were caught in the wind and 
quickly sucked up the hatchways to the upper deck 

When the hull was lifted above the surface of the 
water the main deck revealed many evidences of the 
calamity. In a half dozen places were the tangled iron- 
work of baby carriages. Mixed with the mud and ashes 
were hairpins, occasional fragments of clothing, metal 



VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 255 

buttons and many articles of jewelry. Melted watch 
cases were found in several places. All told, tlie police 
carried away nearly a lialf-busliel of sealed and numbered 
envelopes containing melted gold and bits of jewelry. A 
child's body was found near the starboard paddle box. 

Coroner O' Gorman believed that many bodies were 
completely incinerated on the deck. He was also con- 
vinced that there were still bodies somewhere in the hold 
of the ship hidden in the debris. 

VISITING THE WRECK. 

Commander C. McR. Winslow, of the United States 
Navy, detailed by the United States Government to look 
after the work of investigation, visited the wreck in com- 
pany with Inspector General George Uhler, of the Steam- 
boat Inspection Bureau, and Assistant Inspector Robert 
Rodie, of the New York district, and spent some time 
looking over the hull. They would make no comment 
upon what they saw. Frank A. Barnaby, president of 
the Knickerbocker Company, which owned the " General 
Slocum," his secretary, and Charles Hills, one of the 
directors of the company, visited the wreck while the 
work of inspection was in progress. 

" It is my opinion there should be a fleet of ten fire- 
boats to protect the water front of this city," said Fire 
Commissioner Hayes. " The Brooklyn water front should 
have three fireboats at least. At present the " Hewitt " is 
devoted to the protection of that district, but one boat is 
by no means enough. Staten Island at present has none^ 
and there should be at least one placed there. The New 
York front requires at least six, and we have only five 
for that section. Since October last the Low and Moody 
have been out of commission, badly handicapping the 



266 VALOROUS DEEDS I5Y RESCUERS. 

situatiou. We hope toliave the " Low" ready for service 
in two weeks. In my opinion she should have been sold 
last October and a new boat built. It has cost the city 
$35,000 to accomplish the necessary' repairs, and the boat 
will not be as good as a completely modern one, which 
could have been obtained for an additional $45,000. 

'' It is my intention to bend all my efforts toward 
obtaining from the Board of Estimate and Apportionment 
an appropriation of a quarter of a million of dollars to 
better the Fire Department in this city. Were the people 
of New York wholly cognizant of the present fire alarm 
system, which is wofully behind the times, they wiuild 
be at once astounded and alarmed. 

NEED MORE FIRE BOATS. 

"I want to say I am wholly in favor of the stand for 
more fire boats, and I think the time will come when the 
people will become so aroused they will demand the ser- 
vice that is their due in a city of this size and wealth. 
For the firemen I have only words of praise. They are 
a reliable set of men, and always do their best with the 
means in their power to extinguish fires and save lives." 

More than three thousand dollars was realized at a 
benefit given for the surviving sufferers of the '^ Slocum '' 
disaster at the Grand Opera House. Every seat and all 
the boxes were sold at advance rates. 

Beethoven Hall, at 431 East Sixth street, was packed 
to the doors when the funeral of Mrs. Sophia Schuefiler, 
sixty-three years old, of No. 338 East Sixth street, took 
place. She was known as the "grandmother" to the 
whole of St. Mark's colony. Mrs. Schueffler weighed 
about four hundred pounds in life, and the funeral could 
not be held in the house as it was impossible to get the 



VALOROUS DEEDS BY RESCUERS. 



257 



especially built coffin into the building. The hall was 
heavily draped with black. 

Following the services in the hall, which were con- 
ducted by the Rev. Mr. Krueska, one of the German 
Lutheran volunteer ministers, twenty-one carriages fol- 
lowed the hearse to First avenue, to Seventh street, to 
Second avenue and then through Sixth street and past 
St. Mark's Church on the final stretch of the route to the 
Williamsburg Bridge. 

Practically every child in the neighborhood waited 
patiently to see the hearse and carriage pass by. 

It was the custom of Mrs. Schueffler to take the 
families of her two daughters and three sons on the an- 
nual St. Mark's excursions. This year she went alour 
for the first time. She said she had grown too old and too 
stout to take the responsibility of caring for so many 
children. 




N.Y. 17 



CHAPTER XIV. 
SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 

IT was testified before the Coroner's jury that mem- 
bers of the crew of the " Slocuiii " did nothing to 
save lives. All of the crew except one was saved, and he 
was drowned trying to save a bag containing about $i,ooo 
in coin. Testimony was given before the Coroner's jury 
that no fire drills were held on the "Slocuni " this year; 
that no life preservers had been bought since 1.S95, and 
that there was no valve in the compartment in which the 
fire started from which steam could be turned in in case of 
fire. These are all violations of the Revised Statutes of 
the United States. As for the inspection of the steamer, 
one United States inspector refused to tell what he did 
by way of inspection on the ground that the testimony 
might tend to incriminate him. 

It was said at the Federal Building that few tighter 
cinched cases had ever been turned over to a Federal 
Grand Jury, and the prediction was made that the num- 
ber of indictments that would be returned would jolt some 
persons. 

Gen. Burnett was particularly pleased with the state 
in which he found the case. Tliat which pleased him 
most was the fact that tlie witnesses to be called to testif}' 
before the Federal Grand Jury were all on record before 
the Coroner, and they could not get away from that re- 
cord without causing themselves some embarrassment. 
There were some Soo pages of testimou}^ to hold up be- 
fore any witness possessed of the inclination to duck. 

268 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 259 

The new turn which the case took made it possible 
to tell the story of a pretty bit of legal finesse. It was 
told in the Federal Building by a person who had been 
familiar with the case from the beginning. He said : 

" Now that this case has been delivered into the 
hands of the United States, it can do no harm to say 
that the delivery was the result of a carefully worked 
out plan and, so far, not a detail miscarried. 

" When the news of the disaster reached Washing- 
ton Secretary Cortelyou of the Department of Commerce 
and Labor, after consulting with the President, started 
for New York and laid plans to find out whether any- 
body was criminally responsible for the awful loss of life. 
ORDERS FROM WASHINGTON. 
''Gen. Burnett was posted from Washington as to 
what would be expected of him. Meanwhile Mayor Mc- 
Clellan had got to work and ordered the wrecked " Slo- 
cum " raised. Coroners Berry and O' Gorman were work- 
ing hard, and District Attorney Jerome stood by to give 
the Coroners all the legal advice they needed. 

"As soon as Cortelyou arrived, and while some of 
the newspapers were printing stories about ill feeling 
between State and Federal authorities, Cortelyou and the 
Mayor, who are old friends, and Gen. Burnett and Jerome 
all got together, and a thorough understanding was 
arrived at. There was, as a matter of fact, no clash any- 
where. 

"Jerome pointed out that a Federal investigation 
must, of necessity, be long drawn out before even the 
stepping stone testimony would be adduced. He said 
there was no doubt that it was a case for the United 
States Courts ; but he reminded the others that a Coro- 



260 SWIFT ji'sticf: demanded. 

ner's inquest would have to be held, and he showed that 
that was the quickest wa}' to bring out the preliminary 
facts and get evidence, without any dela}-, on which the 
Government could proceed. He added that his office was 
at once at the Government's disposal. 

" Gen. Burnett agreed with Jerome. Now, see how 
prettily Jerome's plan worked out. The inquest was 
started on Monda3^ Assistant District Attorney Gar- 
van was instructed to get to the bottom of the business. 
In four da\-s he got on record a prettv comprehensive 
story of how the crew of the " Slocum " acted after the 
fire was discovered ; how the steamer was equipped, and 
how the general business of the company owning the 
boat was conducted. 

PUSHING THE INVESTIGATION. 

'' Meanwhile Ma^-or McClellan was carrying out his 
pari of the plan. On Thursday the wreck was raised 
and ready for the inspection of the Coroner's jury, the 
Federal Grand Jury, or anybody else. The case will go 
to the Coroner's jur}'^ on Monda}'-, and, unless I am much 
mistaken, within two weeks from the time the investiga- 
tion was begun somebody will be indicted for something. 

"That something is very serious. Before Garvan had 
got far into the case he found out that there was much 
better chance of meting out adequate punishment to the 
guilty, should guilt be legall}^ determined, under Federal 
than under State laws. Should anybody be indicted 
and tried on the charge of manslaughter in the vStalc 
C(»urts the jury might find the defendant guilty of cither 
one of two degrees of the crime. 

'' But there is no dodging the Federal law. If the 
defendants, whoever they may be, are convicted of crimi- 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 261 

nal negligence the jury must find them guilty of man- 
slaughter, the prescribed penalty for which is confinement 
at hard labor for ten years." 

The work. of collecting additional evidence was con- 
tinued with unabated vigor when, by the raising of the 
charred hull of the '' Slocum," the first opportunity to 
make a thorough inspection of the hold was presented. 
The steamer was shoved further up on the mud flat of 
Flushing Bay at high tide, and at noon two rotary 
pumps with a combined capacity of 8,000 gallons a minute 
began drawing the flooded hold. The shattered hulk 
rose three inches in the first five minutes and two hours 
later the steamer was practically floated. 

GHASTLY FINDINGS ON DECK. 
Earlier in the day two bodies, those of a girl of about 
twelve and a boy of seven were found back of the pad- 
dle-box. Inspector Albertson found on the main deck 
the leg of an adult, and the foot and ankle of a child. 

Word that the hull had been raised brought^ to the 
scene late in the afternoon many persons prominently 
connected with the investigation. President Barnaby 
and his counsel, Lawyer McManus, made their first inspec- 
tion of the hull. They called attention to the presence 
in the forward cabin, where the fire is said to have 
started, of seven oil barrels and a bag of charcoal which 
had apparently not been touched by the flames- The 
jute bag was still intact, in spite of its inflammable con- 
tents, and the oil barrels were little more than blackened 
by the cinders from the burned deck above. 

"This would seem to be conclusive proof," Mr. 
McManus said, "that the fire did not start in the forward 
cabin, as has been the accepted theory up to this time. 



262 SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 

The origin of the fire would therefore seem to be a 
mystery." 

The discovery of tliis condition seemed to afford 
President Barnaby and his counsel particular satisfac- 
tion. President Barnaby waved aside all questioners 
with the remark : . " I am here to work, not to talk." 

Commander Cameron Winslow, U. S. N., of the 
commission appointed by President Roosevelt to investi- 
gate the disaster, accompanied by Inspector-General 
Uhler and Mr. Rodie, inspected the hull. They refused 
to say anything concerning the results of their inspec- 
tion, but announced that they would make another visit. 

SAFE BROKEN OPEN. 

Coroner O' Gorman made a search of the main deck 
and found a considerable quantity of valuables, includ- 
ing three gold watches and a wedding ring bearing the 
inscription, "To ni}^ wife." He ordered Sergt. Postoff 
to break open the safe. While this was being done with 
crowbars and sledge hammers an excited little group 
gathered. When the steel door was raised and Sergt. 
Postoff drew forth two canvas bags whose contents 
jingled there was an excited murmur. The bags proved to 
be filled with brass checks used by the waiters and bar- 
tenders on the steamer. Nothing of value was discovered 
in the safe. 

Darkness fell before a thorough search of the hold 
for ])odies could be made. Coroner O'Gorman penetrated 
the rear hold as far as possible and because of tlie odor 
said he was convinced that more bodies would be re- 
covered as soon as the debris could be removed. 

It was evident from the position of the life boats 
that no effort had been made by either crew or passen- 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 



2(53 



gers to employ tliem to escape. Tlieir metal hulls had 
dropped from the davits to the deck. Coroner O' Gorman 
took away with him a section of the " i6-cent " fire hose, 
which he discovered in the debris. 

The body of Gertrude Haas, the sixteen-year-old 
daughter of the pastor of St. Mark's Church, it was dis- 
covered, had been buried in the grave with a number of 
other unidentified dead. The fact was established by 
parts of the clothing that had been saved at the Morgue. 
Arrangements will be made to disinter the body and 
have it reburied in the family piot. 

PASTOR PREACHES TO HIS FLOCK. 

Pastor Haas nerved himself for his sad duties and 
preached to his flock on Sunday. He said : 

" Why, my beloved, has this thing come to us ? We 
know it, and we cannot deny it. It was due to negli- 
gence, carelessness and greed and that worship of Mam- 
mon which looks only for profit and sends thousands of 
souls into eternity." 

With all the strength that he could put into his 
voice, the Rev. George C. F. Haas made this declaration in 
his sermon before his afflicted congregation in St. Mark's 
Lutheran Church, in Sixth street. The little church was 
crowded to the doors with friends and relatives of the 
unfortunates who were lost in the ''General Slocum" 
disaster, and more than once throughout his sermon the 
pastor's voice was drowned by the sobs that came from 

every side. 

There were many who wondered that the Rev. Mr. 
Haas was able to preach at all. He had endeavored to 
address the Sunday School an hour before, but collapsed 
ere he had hardly begun. He was pale and trembling 



2«4 SWIKT JLSTICK DKMANDF.D. 

wheu he entered the pulpit, but with a great effort, he 
seemed to streugtheu himself for the ordeal, aud pres- 
ently his faltering tones gave way to distinctness and 
eloquence. 

Only once did he seem to lose control of himself, 
and that was when he referred to the many evidences of 
sympathy which he had received from all over the world. 
There were about eight hundred persons present, mostly 
in mourning. The Rev. Mr. Haas took his text from St. 
Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, xiii., 13 — "And now 
abideth faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these 
is love.'' 

"I have sat by many a casket within the last few days 
and preached consolation," began the pastor; ''I have 
attended many a funeral and tried to brush the tears 
awa}', but never in my life have I felt such deep sorrow 
as I do to-day, and never before have I felt so anxious to 
say a few words to you. Let God give me strength to 
preach that word and to reach your hearts in this dark 
hour. 

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

" I can hear the words of niau}' who say : — ' What 
cause have you now for faith in God ? Wh}' did God let 
such things come to you?' And yet even while this 
has come, I still believe and sa}- it is not God who has 
done this, but negligence, carelessness and greed. It was 
due to those who hold life cheap, who look for profit only 
and whose only God is Mammon. It was due to officers 
who did not do their duty and to their careless and in- 
competent agents. 

'' However, forgive me if I throw stones on this 
occasion. 'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' We, too. 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 265 

are to blame. Had we not always been silent, but lifted 
our voices and cried out against this gross negligence 
and greed, things would have been different. We are all 
more or less to blame for it all. 

" Yet, see what God teaches us. For a time careless- 
ness and greed and the worship of Mammon may abide, 
for a time it may flourish and prosper, but after all there 
sits a God in heaven whose laws and commandments you 
cannot throw aside. He is always there, and when a 
calamity like this comes, we feel His power, we see where 
we have sinned, and we can thank Him for the great 
lesson taught us. 

" But I hear you ask : — ' But if this is all so, why 
then should we poor God-loving people have such a thing 
come upon us, and why take away these innocent chil- 
dren ? Why does it not come upon the evil and sinful ? ' 
And I answer even then you can still believe in Him. 
The ways of God are past our understanding." 
VISITATION A MYSTERY. 

The pastor dwelt upon the "mystery" of such a 
visitation falling upon a congregation of God-fearing men 
and women at the hands of a just and loving Master. He 
said throughout all that happened his faith in God had 
not been shaken, although, in spite of the many experien- 
ces he had passed through in the past ten days, it had 
often been difficult for him to bear up under his 
burden. 

"What is to console us now? " he asked. "What 
can we do ? Shall we continue in our work or give up ? 
Answering for myself, and I am sure for the great 
majority of my people, I can say we will go on. This 
blow has given me greater strength. 



266 SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 

" Negligence, carelessness and greed are responsible 
for this awful disaster. I thank God that it has opened 
the eyes of our whole city and the whole country to what 
is required to save thousands of others from a like fate. 
No one on that fatal boat died in vain. The laws of God 
cannot be violated, even if human laws are. 

''My people, I call upon you to put your faith in 
God and to bear up, even though many of our loved ones 
are gone. Love still lives. Love cannot be killed. We 
can keep our love and with it the memories of our loved 
ones who have gone before. In this, our darkest hour, with 
all our burdens and afflictions still fresh upon us, let us 
look up to God. What is now an awful calamity may in 
time prove a blessing. Our cross is heavy, but, thank 
God, it is not too heavy." 

A HEARTFELT TRIBUTE. 

Tears dimmed the pastor's eyes and he frequently 
choked when he paid a glowing tribute to the ofi&cers of 
the church and Sunday school who had lost their lives. 
When he spoke of his wife and daughter he was near the 
point of collapse. 

It took only two hours for the big pumps of the 
Merritt-Chapmau compan}'- to pump drj^ the hull of the 
" General Slocum " as she lay on the flats at low tide off 
Riker's Island. When the tide rose the "Slocum" 
floated ofl", and as she la}' in the Sound all the afternoon 
she was the object of great interest to all passing crafl. 
As finall}' raised, there is nothing above her main deck 
save parts of her machinery and the two paddle boxes. 
While the hull was found intact, it was revealed that the 
fire had burned all through the inside from stem to stern. 
Chief Wrecker Tom Kivliu said that the hull might be 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 267 

converted into a coal barge, but that it could be put to no 
other use. The engines are only old iron. 

One body and the fragments of another, together 
with considerable jewelry, were found in the hull when 
a systematic search was made. 

Some of the jewelry was noticed when the vessel lay 
on the flat the night before and this led to an order from 
Inspector Albertson that no one should be allowed on the 
vessel. What was wrongly construed by some to be a 
clash between the Federal and the local authorities oc- 
curred as a result of this order, for when Roundsman 
Klute and two patrolmen of the Harbor Squad attempted 
to go aboard the hull in the morning to get a body which 
rested on the deck Assistant Inspector Foster, attached 
to the Federal inspection bureau, ordered them off the 
vessel. 

BODY \A^ITH JEWELRY FOUND. 

Inspector-General Uhler happened to be there at the 
time, and when he was appealed to he said that the mat- 
ter was for the chief wrecker to decide. Captain Kivlin, 
the master wrecker, decided that the police could get the 
body, and after some delay it was removed. It was the 
charred body of a young boy and was aft of the port pad- 
dle box. 

When the hull had been entirely emptied, a squad 
of police under Sergeant Posthoff made a careful search 
of the deck and parts of the hull that was not filled with 
debris. They found near the stern an ankle bone and a 
foot of a child. 

Next day with flags at half mast on all the river 
craft and on the wharves and big factories on the East 
River water front the hulk of the " General Slocum" was 



268 SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 

towed from Flushing flats to Robbins' Dock, in the Erie 
Basin. 

The passage down the river was impressive, and 
there was a dramatic scene when the hulk of the steamer 
passed the Third street recreation pier, from which eleven 
days before she had sailed, with flags flying, a band play- 
ing and about fifteen hundred passengers, most of whom 
met death. 

Nearly two thousand persons thronged the pier. 
" Hats off," cried Policeman Essig, of the Union Market 
station, who was on duty at the pier. His order was 
obeyed, and men, women and children stood there with 
bowed heads as the wreck passed by. Similar scenes 
were repeated at the other recreation piers on the Man- 
hattan and Brooklyn shores. 

WRECK TOWED AWAY. 

With the tugboats "Hustler" and "Champion" 
lashed respectively on her port and starboard side, the 
"Slocum" was towed from the Flushing flats shortly 
after eight o'clock in the morning. She was drawn down 
the river by the tugs "Unique" and "Briggs," whose 
hawsers stretched back about one hundred 3^ards to the 
floating wreck. 

When the little flotilla passed the point where the 
steamer sank while burning, the flags were dipped. The 
course was taken through the west channel, passing be- 
tween North Brother Island and the Bronx shore. The 
police steamer " Patrol " and the Dock Department launch 
"Queens," which had Inspector Albertson on board, took 
the lead to clear the river and act as an escort. 

With the hull well up in the water, but listing 
slightly to port, the wrecked craft slowly passed North 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 269 

Brother Island. Part of the starboard wheelhouse was 
standing, but the port wheelhouse was gone. 

At the Market street recreation pier and on the 
Brooklyn Bridge crowds uncovered their heads as the 
" Slocum " passed. Just as the flotilla was turning into 
Buttermilk Channel on the way to the Erie Basin, the 
"Slocum's" sister vessel, the "Grand Republic," with 
flags flying at half mast and carrying about a thousand 
excursionists, cast off from her Battery pier bound for 
Newburg. 

Inspector Albertson arrived at Robbins' Dock at 
eleven o'clock. He received word later that the hull was 
sinking and sent the police boat " Patrol " to her assist- 
ance. The " Patrol," however, found that she had only 
about a foot of water in her hold. 

CORONER AGAIN AT WORK. 

Coroner O' Gorman was again busily at work at 
North Brother Island. His infected finger was lanced 
and treated by Dr. Horowitz, who said the Coroner was 
in no present danger. Only one body was recovered from 
the river during the day. It was that of a woman about 
thirty-five years old and was found off the foot of East 
Fifty-second street. 

Committees representing more than one hundred 
labor unions and lodges attended the funeral services of 
Richard Gersteuberger and his wife who lost their lives 
on the "General Slocum." The services were held in 
Central Hall, No. 147 West Thirty-second street, of which 
Gersteuberger was a member. 

Chief among developments in the investigation to 
fix the responsibility for the burning* of the " General 
Slocum " was the fact that Captain Van Schaick, worn 



270 SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 

by the ordeal of his trip to the Coroner's Court Thursday. 
had contracted a high fever. So serious was his con- 
dition that his nurse after exaniinini,^ his spine, which 
was injured in his jump from the pih)t house, de- 
clared he might never be able to appear in court aud 
might die before he could again be summoned before any 
tribunal. 

It was stated that if Captain Van Schaick suc- 
cumbed before he could tell his side of the tragedy in a 
court of record, it might so hamper the investigation that 
most of those who are actually responsible would escape. 
Coroner Berry was prepared, if necessary, to take an 
ante-mortem statement. 

CAPTAIN DEFENDS HIMSELF. 

Although so weak lie could scarcely talk above a 
whisper, the captain spoke l)riefly to a reporter. The 
captain was informed that after a consultation of tlie 
authorities it had been decided that the District Attorney's 
office, by reason of legal procedure, would be compelled 
practicall}' to withdraw from the case, and that all against 
whom the evidence taken pointed probably would be in- 
dicted by the United States Grand Jury. 

"Well, I can't help what they do. I did ni}- best 
with the 'Slocum,' " he replied. 

He was reminded that in his first statement he had 
declared the "Slocum" to be half way between the 
Sunken Meadows and North Brother Islaud, while 
Weaver, assistant pilot, declared the}- were at Oue Hun- 
dred audTweut3'-eightli street. The captain's statement 
would place the boat at Oue Hundred and Thirty-second 
street. 

"Weaver told the truth," he said. "We were at Oue 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 271 

Hundred and Twenty-eighth street, and it was not possi- 
ble for me to beach her at One Hundred and Twenty- 
ninth street, as they say I should have done." 

" But how do you reconcile your two statements ? " 

" I'm not going to. Not now, at any rate. If they 
ever get me into court I'll be able to clear that up." 

" What have you to say about the statement that a 
boy told you when off Blackwell's Island that the boai 
was afire." 

" Nothing. How could a boy speak to me when I 
was up in the pilot house with a locked door between us ?" 

RUMORS OF ANOTHER FIRE. 

" It is stated by a number of people that there was a 
fire on the ' Slocum ' the day before the disaster. Was 
there?" 

"That is an absolute lie. We had no fire. They 
say that the blaze was smouldering over night, When 
the boat started going she was a wreck in a half hour. 
That doesn't look much like a smouldering fire." By this 
time the captain was so weak his hands hung at his side 
and his nurse insisted that no more questions be asked 
of him. 

" If it becomes a necessity the Coroner can take his 
statement, but he is in so serious a condition now that I 
will not risk his life." 

While Coroner O' Gorman and Fire Marshal Freel 
were at work on the hulk of the "Slocum," finding new 
evidence of criminality. Coroner Berry had a long consul- 
tation with Mr. Jerome and Assistant District Attorney 
Garvan. All testimony adduced at the inquest was sum- 
marized and- weighed. It was decided that on the strength 
of this evidence a number of criminal prosecutions could 



272 SWIFI" jrSTICE DEMANDLD. 

be started succcssfulh', but the question of jurisdictiou 
resulted in United States District Attorney Burnett being 
called into the conference. 

Mr. Burnett's assistant, Mr. Wise, attended the in- 
quest, and he was able to advise his chief, who then said : 

"I have ordered the Federal Grand Jury to assem- 
ble, and at the first practicable moment I shall la}^ all 
the facts of the disaster before them. I must decline to 
discuss the evidence or to say against whom it points, but 
I will say that I shall ask for the indictment of every 
guilt}^ person." 

MIGHT HAVE BEEN AVOIDED. 

Although the Federal authorities would not com- 
mit themselves, Coroner Berry, after his consultation 
with them, declared emphatically that it had been deter- 
mined beyond all doubt that the catastrophe could have 
been avoided, and that criminal prosecutions certainly 
would follow. Late in the day he was informed that his 
associate Coroner had found in the hulk of the " Slo- 
cum" seven barrels which had contained oil. He was 
greatly surprised by this, as the witnesses connected 
with the steamboat had made sworn statements before 
him that there were only three oil barrels aboard and 
that they were part of the boat's equipment. 

Fire Marshal Freel, who with Coroner O' Gorman 
located these barrels in the storeroom, considered the 
find of vast importance, inasmuch as it is another indi- 
cation of the recklessness of the officers of the " Slo- 
cum." Near these barrels were portions of four bodies, 
which apparently had been blown to atoms b\^ an explo- 
sion, while there were indications that in the hold were 
a number of more bodies. The divers were not able to 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. ' 27* 

penetrate far into the debris in the hold, but they said 
there was a deep hole in the river bottom near the wreck, 
in which they thought bodies would be found. 

Among the newspaper discussions of the disaster 
was the following : 

"The Coroner's inquest upon the New York excur- 
sion horror, in which a thousand people were lost, makes 
it clear that the death of a large number, if not of all, of 
the victims was due wholly or in part to official and com- 
mercial rottenness and American recklessness. It is 
plain that the Federal law, which pays the steamboat 
inspectors according to the number of inspections they 
make, is a barbarous and ridiculous statute, worthy of 
the darkness of Korea or Mindanao. The method of 
bringing about lax inspection is to pass a law just like 
the one in force. 

LIFE PRESERVERS WERE OLD. 

"The evidence before the Coroner shows that no 
new life-preservers had been bought by the company 
since 1895; that the preservers were rotton, and that 
the fire hose was of the flimsiest and most worthless 
sort — i6-centhose; the kind that burst and was worth- 
less when put to the test. And the actual fire seems to 
have been the first real test to which the boat was put — 
the boat which was dail}^ freighted with hundreds of 
human beings. 

"These are all very remarkable facts to be learned 
about the steamboat business, but they are not so strik- 
ing and horrible as the testimony given by the chief 
engineer of the * Slocum,' to the effect that he had never 
heard of such a thing as a fire drill aboard his own boat. 

"There is little more to be said after that. One of 

J8 N.Y. 



274 SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 

the inspectors has said that political 'pull' prevented 
adequate inspection of excursion boats, and the record of 
the 'Slocum' will incline many people to believe the 
most terrible stories of the rottenness of the system. It 
is a record of inefficienc}^, of greed, of carelessness, of bad 
laws and incompetent officials, and of American reckless- 
ness and disregard for human life." 

Another journal contains the following: — 
"Two different systems of law are involved in the 
loss of nearly a thousand lives on the steamer ' General 
Slocum,' Federal law provides for the inspection and de- 
termines the character of life-preservers, boats, engine and 
hull. State law holds all within its jurisdiction responsible 
for carelessness or gross neglect where human life is con- 
cerned. 

EACH SYSTEM DEFECTIVE. 

"Between these two, accident after accident happens 
because neither system is complete and efficient. But 
the chief cause for the loss of life in the case of the 
'Slocum' is due simply and solely to the fact that 
Federal law looks to the seaworthiness of a craft and not 
to its safety from fire. 

"The Coroner's inquest in New York has made 
perfectly clear the responsibility both of owners and of 
inspectors for the condition of life preservers and boats 
on the steamer as far as Federal law is concerned. Life- 
preservers were old, rotten, full of granulated cork, dead- 
ly instead of life-saving. The inspectors had passed them 
without examination. The owners had used them under 
knowledge that age rendered them useless. There was 
no fire drill If the boats could not have been lowered, 
they were dangerously near this condition. This was a 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 275 

violation of both systems of law — of tlie Federal inspec- 
tion law and of the State laws protecting human life. 

"Serious as both these violations are, however, they 
do not reach the root of the matter. The frightful loss 
of life on the ' General Slocum ' is due to the fact that 
while its hull was perfectly seaworthy, so far as any risks 
of navigation to which it was exposed was concerned, its 
superstructure was a light, three-story affair, on pillars 
made of pine, saturated with paint, built like a bonfire, 
and certain to burn like one the instant it was lighted. 
Nothing, no precautions, no life-preservers, no lifeboats, 
could prevent a terrible loss of life if such a vessel was 
crowded when it took fire. 

"Yet this construction was permitted by Federal 
law. It is accepted by public opinion. Says that com- 
petent authority, ' The Engineering News ' : — 

NO WORSE THAN OTHERS. 

" ' Further than this — and we know not how to em- 
phasize this too strongly — the ' General Slocum ' was no 
worse a fire risk than the average river or sound or har- 
bor passenger steamer, in use all over the United States. 
She was a fair representation of the prevailing type. 
The same disaster that befel her may befall to-morrow 
any one of the thousands of such craft plying on Ameri- 
can inland waters, and we do not except from this the 
so-called finest examples of the steamboat builder's art 
plying on the Sound or the Hudson River.' 

" Of this there can be no doubt. Unless Congress 
prohibits the use of wooden excursion boats and requires 
a slow burning construction for all their upper works, 
such disasters will come periodically, criminally, as loug 
as the law permits 'li'-' sort of a fire trap to be filled with 



276 



SWIFT JUSTICE DEMANDED. 



human beiugs ; no one can be held responsible for this 
particnlar character of disaster, but it is the basal, funda- 
mental reason for th(* loss of life. Until it is removed, 
these disasters will always come, whenever one of these 
boats catches fire. Congress must act, and Congress 
alone can act, and the only action which will be effective 
is the prohibiton of these light wood superstructures. 
This killed ; all else was but accessory before and after 
the fact." 




CHAPTER XVt 

ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 

TN tlie neat tenements of the stricken parisli of St. 
^ Mark's Lntheran Church little girls took upon them- 
selves housewifely cares ; upon young boys were thrust 
mature duties and responsibilities, and bereaved husbands 
and fathers clasping their hands to their heads, strove in 
helpless confusion to plan life anew. Some of the Sun- 
day school children who left their homes with such 
gleeful anticipation on the morning of June 15, came 
back within a few hours with hope turned to bitterest 
despair, fatherless and motherless. 

In more cases the father had remained in the city at 
work and consequently the children were only half 
orphaned, the mother being lost in many instances try- 
ing to save her children. 

Thus the number of the Bast Side's "little mothers" 
was greatly increased. They are of a patient, sturdy 
race, most of the children afflicted by the disaster, and 
they weep and work by turns. As the days pass the 
weeping lessens, because there is more work that 
must be done, and the German boy^ and girls, however 
sore their hearts, will not shirk. In addition to the 
household responsibility and the care of younger children 
laid upon them the motherless girls were deeply con- 
cerned about clothes. 

Not for the world would one of them ignore the 
ceremonial of "going into mourning." When the meals 
are done, therefore, the dishes washed, the floors swept 

277 



27S ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 

and everythiug in order as mother would have had it, 
the girls sit down to work on the black garments with 
which they show to the world their grief. 

The east side German district is a revelation to those 
who have been fairly familiar with other tenement dis- 
tricts. There is no sign of sqnalor, nothing bnt neatness 
and inviting comfort. There is poverty, but it is not 
hideous. One is impressed that here is a plain people 
with the simple virtues and self respect. In house-to- 
house visits among these German Lntherans there will 
not be found any sign of slatternliness or vice in one case 
out of fifty. 

The oilcloth-covered floors, even when worn, are 
scrupulously clean. There is no dust on the furniture. 
Cupboards are neatly curtained, the cooking stove shines 
and the beds are clean and neatly made. The public 
halls bear evidence that the janitress does her full duty. 

NOTED FOR INDEPENDENCE. 

In these rooms that bear the stamp of home, however 
few in number and limited in size, there exists a whole- 
some family life. For that very reason the grief conse- 
quent upon the broken circles is the more acute. So im- 
bued are they with the feeling of independence and self 
respect that with the entire city ready to empty its 
pockets in token of sympathy, it has been extremely diffi- 
cult to gain the consent to accept financial aid. 

Mr. Ridder, chairman of the Relief Committee, was 
in despair early in the week. The Committee was meet- 
ing daily and its chief business developed into, not tr^-ing 
to meet demands as might have been expected, but in 
trying to find people who would take the mone3\ 

"Ask the public," Mr. Ridder said to the newspaper 



ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 279 

representatives, " to send us word of tlie needy. They 
won't come to us." 

School teachers and the police were pressed into ser- 
vice to scour the neighborhood and report where aid was 
needed, when tactful emissaries were sent to see that it 
was bestowed in such fashion that there should be 
no sting of patronage or charity. Where young children 
have had no parent to resent the efforts of help, an aged 
grandmother, as poor as they, would come forward and 
forbid it, 

" No, no," cried one, "it would be thrown up to them 
always that they had taken charity. It must not be." 

"I had enough saved to pay for one funeral," said 
another, "but I did not think to have five at one time. I 
will pay it, though, if it takes me two or three years." 

CHURCH OFFICERS LOST. 

In the shrinking from outside aid lay one of the 
reasons for the delay in determining the exact proportions 
of the disaster, the definite numbers of the dead, injured 
and orphaned or otherwise dependent persons. Another 
serious handicap was the loss of so many of the officers 
of the church and Sunday school. The officers of the 
Middle Collegiate Church, more than seventy of whose 
children were on the excursion, were able to get their list 
in shape at once and rendered great assistance to their 
afflicted neighbors. 

The appearance of the children indicated more clearly 
than anything else their orphaned state. Under the 
burden of responsibilities they grew years older within 
a few days. 

The plan of the committee in dealing with the 
afflicted was made with regard to the self-respect and 



280 ORPHANS CAST IT POX THE WORLD. 

the sensitiveness of the class of persons with whom 
they had to deal. Such measure of help was given 
in each case as the circumstances required, but in no cir- 
cumstances are children to be placed in institutions. 

As nearly as possible thc}^ are to have such homes 
provided for them as they would have had had their 
parents lived. Where relatives are able and willing to care 
for the children, but are iniable to assume the expense 
of their support, they will be paid for ^« . 

ORPHANS TO BE PROVIDED FOR. 

If there is none of kin to undertake the responsibility 
families of as near the same grade as the orphans' as can 
be found will be asked to undertake the charge and will 
be suitably paid. Arrangements will be made for all chil- 
dren to remain in school until thej^are sixteen years of age. 

The general relief committee has only vaguely out- 
lined conditions, their efforts being directed chiefly to- 
ward emergency work. A special permanent committee 
will be formed, the Mayor being a member ex-officio, to 
handle the funds collected and apply them as is deemed 
necessar}^ 

Emphasis will be laid upon the money being a free 
gift of the people to meet conditions for which the recip- 
ients were in no wa}^ at fault. 

The school teachers were of the greatest assistance in 
dealing with this difficult problem. The}' know the cir- 
cumstances of most of the children, and they receive 
confidence that would not be given to others. Man}'- of 
the children who have lost members of their families 
belong to the old Fifth street school and the entire teach- 
ing body of that school has formed itself into a volun- 
teer relief committee, upon which the official relief 



ORPHANS CAST XJPON THE WORLD. 281 

committee has leaned heavily. In addition to their prac- 
tical work in aiding the sufferers, the teachers have given 
unusual latitude to all of the pupils who have been sor- 
rowing in sympathy with their afflicted little friends. 
Classes have been excused day by day to attend the 
funerals of classmates or to carry flowers. > 

Instead of the usual graduating exercises in the 
girl's department an affecting memorial service was held 
and there is to be a similar one for the boys. Money 
which was to have been used for class festivities was 
given to the relief committee. 

THOUGHTFUL DONATION. 

It is the custom of each outgoing class to present 
the school with a picture, and this year's class had 
ordered one before the calamity. Mr. Williams, a Fifth 
avenue dealer, of which it had been purchased, refused 
to take the money, about $35, and it was given in the 
name of the class for the benefit of pupils of the school 
who were in need. 

Members of the Health Protective Association and 
other organizations of women considered a proposition 
to establish a neighborhood house where relief of all 
kinds could be given sufferers from the disaster. 

"The men need women to get the children ready 
for school, to cook the dinners and to keep their homes 
together," said a member of the committee that had the 
matter in hand. " I think we should take a house in 
that part of town and see if graduate nurses will not 
come there to live and give their services in return for 
their board. Nothing will be done by the women, how- 
ever, without the sanction and advice of the Rev. Mr. 
Haas, of St. Mark's Church." 



282 ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 

Ouly a few doors away the Pottlebaums were gather- 
ing ready to move. *' There are three of us boys left," 
explained Charlie. " That's because we didn't go on 
the excursion. Our father and mother and brother are 
all lost. We can't keep house alone, so we are going to 
Brooklyn to board." 

" We must be liberal with these people," said Mr, 
Julius Harburger, of the relief committee. "I staud 
for that. This money has been raised to help these 
people, and they should have all they need." 

EXAMPLES OF THRIFT. 

The number of children who were left without father 
and mother, according to police returns was only fifteen, 
but tliose who lost one parent were numbered by the hun- 
dreds. 

In a small tenement on a top floor lived the Richer 
family. Mr. Richer died several years ago, leaving seven 
children for his widow to rear. Day and uight the woman 
worked, washing, cleaning offices, doing whatever she 
could and keeping her children in school as long as she 
was able. 

" Her hands were hard, but her children were always 
clean," said a neighbor. 

In a back tenement on the top floor of the next 
house lived her mother, Mrs. Henning, whom she sup- 
ported, sending her meals to her up the stairs and over 
the roof The old lady could not stand the noise of the 
children and that was why she had a separate tenemeut. 

Three of Mrs. Richer's children had begun to work, 
and she could see her way to taking life a little more 
easy. When the excursion was planned the entire family, 
with the exception of one bo}^, decided to take advantage 



ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 283 

of it The tired mother with six children went aboard 
the pleasure boat. Six bodies were buried later, 

Frances, the ten-year-old-girl, who was saved, walked 
hand in hand with her brother, who had not gone. The 
boy is only fifteen, but he acts like a grown man. The 
day after the funeral he went back to his work in a com- 
mission house down town, but his employer said to him 
in kindly fashion : — " Take the week off ; come back next 
Monday." 

" I was glad," said the boy simply as he came home 
and took off his coat, " for now I can get the moving 
done." 

With a little help he moved over what furniture 
would be needed from their own tenement to that of his 
grandmother. The children will live with her for the 
present. 

" She oughtn't to be left alone," explained the boy. 
" I will have to take care of her and my little sister. 
Well, I don't know just how I'm going to do it, but I'll man- 
age it somehow. There isn't any one else to do it." 

HOW THEY WERE SAVED. 

Frances told how she was saved : — " I couldn't swim, 
but I tried not to swallow any water. They taught us 
that in school, you know. And pretty soon I caught 
hold of a boat that was turned upside down." 

" Then Charlie Trowbridge — he lives down our 
street — came and saved her," put in her brother, *'He 
saved her and Louisa Motzer, that lives across the street, 
and two others. He was trying to save the fifth, but his 
hands gave out and he couldn't. His hands are bad yet. 
They were all burned." 

Arthur Wurmstich lost his father, mother and 



2RI ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 

brother. He has left only his old grandmother, with 
whom he lives. 

"I got ashore all right," he said, simply, when asked 
about his experience. Others have told how he seized two 
life preservers as he went overboard, but, seeing two wo- 
men struggling for life without an}^, he gave them up 
and took his chances. A little later he M'as picked up by 
a boat. 

Mr. Roberts, the principal of the Fifth street school, 
attests that Arthur is not only a brave boy, but a bright 
one. He stands high in this year's graduating class, of 
which he is a member, although not fourteen years of 
age. The boy is ambitious aud hopes to enter the high 
school in the fall. 

BAND LEADER LOST. 

His father was for several years the leader of the 
band that played for excursion parties on the " Grand 
Republic," the " General Slocum's " twin. Recently he 
had not been well aud he weut with his family iu the 
hope that the day's outing would benefit him. 

Alone in the world also is John Klenck. His father 
died some time ago and he weut on the picnic with his 
mother and two brothers, one older and one younger than 
himself. 

" My mother tried to put life preservers on us, but 
the straps broke," exclaimed John. " I don't know how 
I got* ashore. Somebody pulled me out, I think. I don't 
know where I'm going to live. I haven't any home now. 
I'll go up town with my aunt awhile, I don't know 
where I'll go after that." 

On the same street lived the Rcuthingers, thrifty 
folk, whose home is broken up by death. Mrs. Reuth- 



ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 286 

inger perished witli three of her children. " My mother 
could have saved herself if it hadn't been for us children," 
exclaimed Elsie, one of the two who were saved, *' but she 
threw me in a boat, and my brother, too, and then she 
didn't have any more strength." 

There are four orphan boys at one house, George, 
William, Harry and Louis Weiss, the oldest twenty-one 
years of age and the youngest three. Their father died 
about a year ago of consumption and their mother was 
lost on the " Slocum." A similar case is the Lanns, the 
oldest boy being only nineteen years of age. Two little 
Meyer boys, eight and nine years of age respectively, 
are left without father or mother. 

"SUCH A GOOD MOTHER." 

In spotless rooms lived the Rosenagel family, hus- 
band and wife, their little daughters, Lucy and Grace, 
and the old grandmother. Mrs. Rosenagel had promised 
to take the little girls on the Sunday school excursion if 
the day was fine. When the panic came on the boat she 
was separated from her daughters and was lost. 

"She was such a good mother," the little girls 
lamented, " always making nice things for us and giving 
us pleasure." 

As an evidence of her thoughtfulness the confirma- 
tion dress that she had made for the older girl was 
pointed out with the remark, " That's all hand work ; 
she did it." 

" Ach, yes," moaned the aged mother of the dead 
woman. " I have had thirteen strong children and I 
have lived to see them all die but one. Who will take 
care of me now she is dead ? " 

Across the street from the Rosenagels lived the 



286 ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 

Abesser family. Mr. Abcsser is an electrical bell hanger 
and has a little shop on the street floor. All day and 
into the evening he sits there with a face of haunting 
sadness. He can hardly speak even to those who come 
to him on business. His wife and only son were lost and 
he sent his motherless little girls to friends in Brooklyn. 
The Middle Church sent them to the country to give the 
distracted father a chance to recover and make some 
permanent plan. 

" I had to send my little Hattie away," said Mr. 
Felzke, who lost his wife and two children. " She is all 
I have left, but she couldn't go out on the street because 
ever}^ one would talk to her about the boat and she 
couldn't stay in the house with nobody to take care of her. 
I would be in the river if it wasn't for her. For years we 
struggled and struggled, and we got things piece by 
piece. One month ago we moved in here. I think it 
must have been for the funerals. My month is up now 
and I will have to go — I don't know where. There is 
no one to make a home for me and my Hattie. Here is 
a letter from her." The child wrote a bright letter, 
evidentl}' designed to cheer her sorrowing father. 

Next door, another little girl, Josephine Diehl, was 
bereft of her mother, two sisters and a grandmother, 
and came near losing her own life. She was caught in 
the crowd and carried under the boat. Luckily she was 
rescued, but her arm was broken and she was otherwise 
injured. She is being cared for by relatives in the 
Bronx. 

" I swam ashore," said Fred Schmidt. " Edward 
Matzerathand I swam together and got to North Brother 
Island. The swimming was all right just as soon as you 
got out of the tangle of the bodies. My mother couldn't 



ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 287 

swim aud she and my sister Anna and the baby were 
drowned." 

Another happy home that has been broken up by 
the tragedy is that of the Manheimers. Little LilHe 
Manheimer lost her father and brother and her aunt, for 
whom she was named. Mr. Manheimer had taken the 
little girl and gone to live with relatives. In another 
Manheimer family the mother and her three oldest chil- 
dren were lost, leaving only an eight-year-old boy, Otto. 

'* We tried to do all the things the school teacher 
told us," said Mamie Armhurst, who, with her sister, 
Florrie, was saved. Her mother and her little sister, 
Kdna, perished. "We tried to take strokes and keep our 
heads up and not swallow any water. We were awfully 
glad, though, when a boat came up and took us in, espe- 
cially Florrie, because she was burned. They took her to 
the hospital, but she's all right now." 

LOADED IN WITH THE DEAD. 

Little Louise Beusch was so badly burned that she 
did not know how she was saved. Her mother was lost. 
Clara Hartman, the eleven-year-old girl who was brought 
to the Alexander avenue police station with a load of dead 
persons, recovered rapidly after being taken to the Lin- 
coln Hospital for treatment, but when she got over the 
shock of her own experience she found she had lost her 
mother and sister. 

There were three motherless children left in the pretty 
home of Bernhard Mueller, where the father, after losing 
his wife and baby, was lying at the point of death from 
pneumonia, the result of exposure and anxiety during 
his search for his loved ones. Grover, twelve years old ; 
Walter, nine, and Arthur, six, are being cared for by 



28« ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 

their / jandmother, Mrs. Hager. "I wish I'd gone with 
them, ' said the grandmother. " I'd have been willing to 
give tny life for that of my daughter." 

When the catastrophe occurred Mr. Mueller and his 
family were on the upper deck. They had seen the fire 
in "lime to prepare themselves for the panic. The father 
at once began pulling out all the life preservers within 
reach. One he placed on his wife, who held the three- 
year-old baby, Edgar, in her arms. He then fastened 
t hem successively on the three other boys and handed 
mt others to frantic women. 

NEVER SEEN AGAIN. 

There was none left for Mr. Mueller himself when 
Vhe time came for all of them to jump into the water. 
The mother went first with the baby. It is thought that 
her life preserver was useless, for, although she was a 
good swimmer, she was never seen alive again. 

IMueller lost sight of his wife and children as soon 
as they went overboard. He arrived at his home at half- 
past twelve o'clock, drenched to the skin, inquiring 
frantically for news of his wife and children. He refused 
to take time to put on dry clothes, but at once started 
back to search for his famil3^ 

Grover, Walter and Arthur had all been picked up 
separately by rescuers. They were snugly tucked away 
in cots in Lincoln Hospital when their father found them. 
All were unharmed except Arthur, the youngest, who 
was burned about the head. 

Little Ernst Mueller, eight j^ears old, who lives in 
a neat little home, lost his mother, brother Henry and 
baby sister Mary in the disaster. 

" We were all on the deck together," said Ernst, 



ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 289 

"only papa was downstairs. Then every thing broke 
down all around us. I rolled over on to a tug boat. 
That's all I know." 

Ernst's father, George, who was on the main deck, 
made desperate attempts to reach his family on the hur- 
ricane deck. The deck collapsed before he could reach 
them, however. 

" I don't care about myself," he said, "but some- 
thing ought to be done for a lot of poor folk. So long as 
I am healthy I can work and take care of my boy." 

Everything in the neat rooms gave evidence of the 
care and industry of the mother who is gone. In spite 
of his words, the father seemed quite lost as he sat there 
holding his little boy on his knee. 

FOUR MOTHERLESS CHILDREN, 

Another family in which the mother is sorely missed 
is that of the Schnitzerlings. Four children were left 
motherless there, while two children were lost. Conrad, 
the father, was in despair, not knowing how to divide his 
time between his work and the management of his little 
brood. Freddie and Annie Schnitzerling, respectively 
five and ten years old, evidently did not realize the terror 
of the experience through which they had passed. 

" We tumbled off the boat," said Freddie. The rail- 
ing broke, you know, and there we was in the water. I 
didn't like it a bit, but somebody fished me out, just as if 
I was a big fish, with a big hook on the end of a pole. 
And somebody else picked Annie iip. We didn't see 
mamma again." 

Eleven year old Johnny McCarthy lost his mother 
and ten-year-old brother Jerry. When found in a hos- 
pital his hair had partly turned gray. 

19 N.Y. 



290 ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 

"Mother and I took down life preservers, but they 
all fell apart," said the boy, who is being cared for by 
relatives. " I jumped into a rowboat when the fire came 
near, but mother and Jerry were lost." 

In the family of Henry Heinz, the mother and two 
daughters were lost. Two boys, Henry, twelve, and 
George, sixteen years old, were saved after an exciting 
experiencee. 

Little Henry lost the power of speech for three days 
after the death of his mother. Always a quiet and re- 
served youngster and inclined to be shy, Henry onlj^ 
burst into tears whenever he was questioned. He told his 
father how he climbed a pole to the hurricane deck and 
then fell with the wrecked deck into the water. He was 
picked up by men in a rowboat. 

DIVED FROM THE DECK. 

George made a leap from the hurricane deck into the 
water. He struck bottom head foremost, but was unin- 
jured, and swam ashore. 

Thirteen-year-old Arthur Link, the son of a widow, 
is looked upon as a hero by the Link family's neighbors, 
in avenue A. When the panic came the boy didn't lose 
his presence of mind, and, surrounded by a screaming 
throng of women and children, he determined to try to 
save another life besides his own. 

With his sister, Lottie, eight years old, and his 
brother, Edward, eleven, Arthur had gone on the excur- 
tion with Mrs. Heckert, and the latter's four children. 

Mrs. Heckert had in her arms her six months old 
baby, Julia. Arthur snatched the baby from its fright- 
ened mother and made a wdld jump for the deck of a tug- 
boat that came alongside. 



ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 291 

"They all came jumping on top of me wlien I fell," 
said Arthur, "I don't know what happended afterward, 
'cause when I came to I was in the pilot house. I'd got 
unconscious an' the baby wasn't with me any more." 

Little Julia was picked up on another part of the 
deck, badly hurt, and she died soon after, in spite of the 
boy's plucky effort to save her. Mrs. Heckert is in a 
serious condition at her home from burns and injuries. 
Two of her children were saved. 

YOUNG IRISH IMMIGRANT. 

Mrs. Lena Link is naturally proud of young Arthur. 
Her two other children, Lottie and Edward, lost their 
lives. 

When a recapitulation is made of the deeds of hero- 
ism that attended upon the " Slocum " disaster and praise 
is bestowed with a judgment made clear by reflec- 
tion, few who then dared death for others will be found 
more worthy of a monument than Mary McCann, Irish 
immigrant, seventeen years old. 

So conspicuous was her bravery and so unusual the 
circumstances surrounding her self-sacrifice that the girl, 
who is poor, won the interest of Assistant District Attor- 
ney, Francis P. Garvan, who provided for her a home 
where she will be cared for and will receive an education. 

Responsible persons who have been thrilled by the 
recital of her unselfish daring will call the attention of 
Andrew Carnegie to her deeds, and it is therefore not 
improbable that she will be benefited by the hero fund he 
has established. 

There was much printed during the following ten 
days of the heroism of those who rescued imperilled ex- 
cursionists from the waters around North Brother Island, 



292 ORl'HANS CAST UPON THK WORLD. 

Men who were in boats and bronght many to shore re- 
ceived deserved praise. Policemen, accustomed to risk 
their lives, plunged from skiffs and saved those who were 
drowTiing. A nurse girl swam for the first time in her 
life, and, never deserting the baby she held, brought it 
and herself in safety to shallow water. 

In the rush of these things the stor}^ of Mary i\Ic- 
Cann was almost forgotton. A newspaper on the day 
following the disaster told of the girl saving a cnild's life. 
After that she seemed to have disappeared. There was 
no one that knew anything of her or her deeds who vol- 
unteered information, and her own modesty so cloaked 
her that the true story of her heroism when the " Slo- 
cum" burned and sank with the dead might never have 
been known had she not been an essential witness for the 
Coroner's inquest. In that way she came under the at- 
tention of Mr. Garvan, 

HEROINE ON THE WITNESS STAND 

She took the witness stand for a few moments, and 
an effort was made to have her tell what she had done. 
But the girl who had been so bold when men faltered 
and failed became shy, her voice sank to a whisper and 
she answered only in monosyllables, spoken in such a 
low tone that those a few feet away could not hear what 
she said. 

When she had concluded her testimony she went 
back to the hospital, where she rapidly recovered from 
her exposure on the day the "Slocum" was burned. 

Mary McCann came to this country from Ireland on 
May 1 1. She had no sooner landed than she was stricken 
with scarlet fever and was quickly hustled awa\' to the 
hospital for contagious diseases on North Brother Island. 



ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 298 

The pest house was almost her only knowledge of America 
until the day of the disaster. 

She fought through the crucial stages of the disease 
and was almost out of danger on June 15, when the 
alarm ran through the hospital and over the island 
that a steamboat afire was coming up the river. Doctors, 
nurses, those patients who could move, engineers, and 
nearly every one ran to the beach toward which the 
doomed vessel was coming. 

DID NOBLE WORK. 

There is another story of a heroism somewhat differ- 
ent from Mary McCann's that might be told here. It is 
of the young telephone operator, Miss Lulu McKibben, 
who remained at her post. Uninstructed, advised by no 
superior, she realized the kind of help that would be 
needed and she telephoned to the hospitals in the city to 
send doctors and ambulances and what other aid they 
could for those on the " Slocum." In all that excitement 
she calmly stayed behind to do her duty, and when that 
was done she went to the beach and saved lives ; but that 
is still another story. 

With the doctors and nurses ran Mary McCann. 
She was weakened from the long fever. She had learned 
to swim in her native land and before the fever had been 
strong and active. When she reached the shore a multi- 
tude of men, women and children had thrown themselves 
into the water to escape the flames. 

The young girl at once leaped into the swift current 
and with a few strokes was at the side of a sinking child. 
She fought off the hands that grabbed at her and bore 
her burden back to shore. Giving the child into the 
care of others, she plunged in again. This time her ob- 



294 ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 

ject was further out and she was in greater danger; but 
she seized a little girl b}^ the arm, bore her safely to 
where waiting arms received her, and was back again in 
the current fighting for another life. 

A boy not far away had just disappeared, but the 
girl's hand seized him and he too was borne back to safety 
by Mary McCann. All this time she had been seized by 
others as she passed and sometimes dragged under water. 

On her fourth trip she had caught a child when 
frantic hands below the surface clutched her skirt. Other 
hands seized her feet and she sank, but did not relinquish 
her burden. Under water she fought. Her skirt was 
torn from her, and with the waist of her dress in shreds 
she came to the surface, still holding the child. 

HAD TO BE SAVED HERSELF. 

She was very weak when she gained the shore this 
time, but she turned again to the dying. Again she 
breasted the current and was soon in shallow water with 
the fifth child that she saved that day. 

She was near the shore with this child when the 
strain told upon her weakened condition. She sank with 
her burden still in her arms and her head went below 
the water, although it was not more than four feet deep 
at that place. She would have drowned had not an 
assistant of Joseph S. Gaffney, engineer on North Brother 
Island, been watching. He leaped to her side and picked 
her up, and with the girl in one arm and the child she 
had saved in another waded ashore. 

Mary McCann was unconscious. She was taken back 
to the hospital, and even after she had l)cen revived the 
surgeon shook his head doubtfully, for such exposure 
would naturally mean a great deal to a convalescent. 



ORPHANS CAST UPON THE WORLD. 



295 



But she did not die. She got well, or very nearly well. 
And to no one did she tell of her adventures except briefly 
and as one tells of things that are done as a matter of 
duty and not for praise. But the surgeon saw and Gaff- 
ney's assistant saw, and others saw, and so the young 
immigrant girl became a valuable witness for the Coro- 
ner. And now she may learn of another side of America. 




CHAPTER XVI. 
SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREED. 

A CORRESPONDENT of a metropolitan journal sent 
-^ the following sharp letter which attracted the at- 
tention and received the approval of a multitude of 
readers : 

" Of what use to investigate the cause of the " Gen- 
eral Slocum " horror? There have been others, and pub- 
lic indignation availed nothing. Will it avail now ? Why 
should we murmur ? Only twelve kundred of the common 
herd were lost. It was merely a rather sudden thinning 
out — disagreeable, of course, because of the loss of the 
boat and all those fine life preservers. But the herd is 
still large. 

"What matter that the aged, after a life of useful- 
ness, met such a death ; that hundreds of mothers of the 
middle class, which produces the glorious brain and 
brawn that makes America what she is, went down in a 
furnace of fire ; that the cruel waters of the East River 
were a daisy field of baby faces, framed with tossing 
golden, brown, and raven locks ? What matter hearts are 
broken and reason is dethroned ? 

" But there is so much to be thankful for it were 
folly to note such disagreeable episodes. Think how 
really horrible it would have been had a wife, mother, or 
child of one of the owners of the " General Slocum " 
gone down in flame or wave ; think of our carefully 
constructed and sumptuous ocean liners, satin padded 
and ponderously luxurious for their precious cabin 

^6 



SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREED. 297 

freiglit ; think of the libraries the suffering public is get- 
ting, and the priceless tapestries we are receiving. 

"Think of some of our Bible class instructors, men 

of millions, who hold the Bible in one hand and figure 

out the next week's grab with the other. Think of the 

^ splendid speed records of automobiles. If our fine apart- 

tment houses go up like Jack's beanstalk, and, perchance, 

one falls, let us not get fussy about it. 

" It is said there are no tears in heaven — is it possi- 
ble St. Peter's hand did not tremble when he flung wide 
the gates of gold to admit the army of flame-scorched and 
water-stained murdered innocents, and could the angels 
receive them unmoved ? 

CRIMINAL SELFISHNESS AND GREED. 

"We regard with horror the bloody Juggernaut of 
India — is it any worse than our own Juggernauts ? Our 
blood chills when we contemplate the deeds of high- 
binders and the Mafia, but how about our own broad- 
clothed stranglers ? 

"In the name of reason and humanity, let us turn 
the Constitution to the wall, haul down Old Glory, fling 
off our garb and mien of sanctity, and put away our Bible 
until we purge ourselves of criminal selfishness and greed 
that renders us unfit to touch them." 

Another correspondent wrote as follows : 

"The letter which appeared in to-day's issue of you*- 
paper entitled ' The Sin of Man, Not the Hand of God,' 
reminds me of an editorial which appeared in a Western 
paper not long ago. It began something like this : 
' When are we going to stop accusing God of killing 
people,' and went on to criticise the use of the following 
in resolutions of respect : ' Whereas, it has pleased our 



298 SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY CREED. 

Heavenly Father to remove from our midst a beloved 
brother, etc.' 

"It is very evident to me that one of two things 
must be true, either God is always responsible for all 
deaths whether from disease or disaster, or He is respon- 
sible for none. If He plans such things as the burning 
of the *Slocum,' can inspection or non-inspection change 
the divine plan ? 

"If so, why punish men for neglect? If in accord- 
ance with the divine plan, could it be changed by lire 
drill and apparatus or the caretaking of men ? Or ought 
we to wish to change it ? 

"What does this mean: 'Like as a father pitieth 
his children so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him ? ' 

CAN LOVE CHANGE? 

"Would the most brutal human father cause his 
child to sufifer as in the 'Slocum' disaster hundreds of 
innocents suffered ? And, again, ' God is love ' and 
unchangeable. Can He who is infinite Life change His 
nature and cause death ? 

" This is a vital question and one which we should 
not fear to look squarely in the face. Surely we want to 
know the truth of this matter in justice to Him, 'who 
doeth all things well,' ' is the same yesterday, to-day, 
and forever,' and 'is no respecter of persons.' " 

The newspaper commented as follows : 

" As might have been expected, the fearful disaster 
has resulted in a perfect deluge of correspondence upon 
the subject of the ' Problem of Evil.' This newspaper, 
and probably every other one in the cit}', has been flooded 
with letters, long and short, good, bad and indifferent, 
filled with questions that no man can answer. 



SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREED. 299 

" The problem of evil is one which, up to date, is 
still a long way from being settled. A bright man can 
make a very plausible argument for the existence of evil 
in the world of an all wise, all powerful and all merciful 
God, and another man, equally bright, can demolish the 
argument in a trice, 

" For thousands of years the ablest minds on earth 
have been seesawing back and forth upon the recondite 
theme, and from present indications the seesawing is 
likely to continue for an indefinite period. The world is 
a very large affair, and man, like the fly on St. Peter's 
dome, can see but a little way around himself. 

SOME THINGS ARE CLEAR. 

" In this great universe there is room for 'boundless 
better ' as well as for ' boundless worse,' and it were well 
for us not to be too blatantly dogmatical, one way or the 
other. In the meantime, some things are as clear as a 
Colorado sky. We have but to open our eyes to see in 
Nature certain plain facts which one does not need to be 
a theologian in order to understand. 

"One of the facts that we see in Nature is that of 
her absolute and unswerving democracy. Nature has no 
favorites. Her sunshine and rain fall alike upon the good 
and the evil, the just and the unjust. Her storms and 
floods, her pains and pestilences, sweep down with equa' 
fury upon saint and sinner, millionaire and pauper. In 
her dealings with us there is no partiality shown to any 
one. She treats us all alike. Before her high tribunal 
we all are equal. 

"From the cradle to the grave we all are subjects to 
the same laws, and, according to our action, receive the 
same treatment. If it cannot be afi&rmed that Nature 



aw SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREED. 

has ' charity for all/ it certainly cannot be denied that 
she has ' malice toward none.' 

" Another fact about Nature is her thoroughgoing 
honesty. We can depend upon her. She never lies to us. 
If you pay her price she delivers to you the goods as ad- 
vertised. Her yea is yea ; her nay is na}^ ; and she never 
deceives us. 

" You can plant corn with the absolute certainty of 
conviction that you will reap corn and not something 
else. You can launch your ship upon the waters know- 
ing that if it is properly built it will float. You can 
mix your chemicals with the perfect assurance that 
certain combinations will always result in certain effects. 
You can inflate your balloon with hydrogen gas and feel 
perfectly sure that when the rope is cut it will rise. You 
can trust Nature all along the line with the very com- 
fortable feeling in the meantime that the trust will not 
be betrayed. 

WHERE BLAME BELONGS. 

" And this brings us to the main thought of this 
article — the utter senility of trying to lay the blame of 
such things as the 'Slocuni ' disaster upon God. We 
are sufficiently well acquainted with the wa3'S of God, as 
those ways are outlined in the econom}' of Nature not to 
be delivered into any fatal disregard of the same. 

" We know that water will drown us and that fire 
will burn us, and it is our bounden duty to govern our- 
selves accordingly. We are not ' dumb, unreasoning 
brutes.' We are gifted with reason ; we are intelligent 
beings; and it is our own fault if, with wide-open eyes, 
we walk to destruction. 

"We know enough about the laws of Nature to figure 



SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREED. 301 

on what will happen if we do certain things, or fail to do 
them ; and it is as nnjust as it is idiotic to lay the blame 
of onr foolishness upon God. It is high time that all 
the silly talk about what God does or does not do, per- 
mits or does not permit, had forever ceased. It means 
nothing at all. 

" We must come nearer home. It is ourselves who 
do or fail to do, who permit or do not permit. If the 
*' General Slocum " had been a fireproof boat, or if, being 
a wooden boat, the proper thing had been done when the 
fire was discovered, there would have been no calamity. 
We may theorize as much as we like, but such is the 
plain truth in the case. 

LAWS OF NATURE VIOLATED. 

* ' This great calamity will not have fallen upon us 
in vain, therefore, if it serves to give us a real serious 
realization of the truth that ' God helps those who help 
themselves,' and that very much of the so-called ' Mys- 
tery of Providence ' is nothing more or less than the 
mystery of our own unaccountable carelessness of the 
laws of Nature," 

The burning of the handsome steamer, " General 
Slocum," in the East River, New York, with over 1,500 
excursionists on board, will take place in history as one 
of the saddest and most pitiable disasters on record. It 
lacked no element of either pathos or horror. It was an 
occasion of festivity suddenly transformed into anguish 
and ghastly death. No premonition of the awful holo- 
caust entered the minds of the light-hearted mothers, 
relieved for the day of all domestic care, as they watched 
their bright-faced children romping the decks in sheer 
delight. 



802 SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREED. 

All bright and baunered the gay ship swung into 
the stream, and to the strains of delicious music, threaded 
its way through river-craft, between great cities, past 
green islands, with no dream of its destin3\ Suddenly 
the cry of " fire" rang through the startled throngs and 
the laughter of the children was quenched in the wild 
panic that followed and the frantic shrieks of parents 
calling for their little ones. It was a scene of horror 
which memory would willingly forget, but which will 
linger with the survivors while life lasts. 

SCENE OF FIRE AND SMOKE. 

In some way, not yet officially determined, the fire 
originated in the hold of the vessel and spread with in- 
comprehensible rapidity. As the steamer was swept with 
smoke and flame, many leaped into the river, choosing 
_leath by drowning rather than by fire. Hundreds were 
iriven by the intense heat to the after deck, where the 
railing gave way and were precipitated, a living, scream- 
ing cataract into the cold and pitiless river. Others 
rushed for life-preservers only to find them "rotten " and 
worthless. Before the vessel could be beached the appal- 
ling disaster was complete. 

Many of the bodies recovered were burned beyond 
all recognition. Death was no respecter of persons. 
With unrelenting hand it seized upon old and young. 
Compassionate motherhood and innocent infancy were 
alike victims of its fury. Its hand of fire spared neither. 
The maiden's dream and the lover's hope went out to- 
gether. Jeweled wealth and pathetic poverty faced death 
by fire hand and hand, or went down to their graves in 
the river side by side. 

^ears and prayers and maternal affection were alike 



SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREED. 303 

unavailing ; and while the blackened ruins of the wrecked 
ship rise out of the water a pall of gloom hangs over the 
great city, where countless homes are filled with incon- 
solable grief. 

The public will pass judgment as to where the re- 
sponsibility for this fearful crime against humanity lies. 
Most searching investigations are in progress and in due 
time the accountability will be officially determined. 
But no one can forget iu the presence of a disaster such as 
this how closely our highest joy treads upon the heels of 
our deepest sorrow, or that the day of anticipated delight 
may hold for us only desolation and anguish of heart. 

HIS FOOTSTEPS UNKNOWN. 

Where we look for light we may find only darkness 
so deep that not a star seems shining, and the only 
sounds we hear are the rending of heartstrings and the sob- 
bings of bowed heads that, like Rachel weeping for her 
children, will not be comforted. What the passing hour 
may bring to us no one may positively know. It is with 
God, in Whose hands we all are. His way is in the sea 
and His path is in the great waters, but His footsteps are 
not known. 

On the charred deck of the steamboat " General Slo- 
cum, " at Erie Basin, the Coroner's jury engaged in in- 
vestigating the disaster, to determine the responsibility 
for the loss of life, heard positive testimony that the fire 
had originated inside a partly consumed barrel which 
they saw on top of a pile of rubbish. 

While almost every vestige of the wooden super- 
structure of the big excursion boat had disappeared, leav- 
ing the huge walking beam, the boilers and some gnarled 
pipes and iron stairs standing alone, the forward cabin, 



304 SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREED. 

where the blaze started, was damaged to a comparatively 
small extent. 

Barrels filled with oil within a few feet of the barrel 
originally aflame were removed from the hold absolutely 
intact. Camp stools, hay, life preservers, canvas, paint 
and other inflammable material removed from the cabin 
gave no external evidence of having been scorched, 
though tugs that were taken near the " General Slocum" 
on June 15 were blistered and caught fire. The explana- 
tion given is that the flames rose through the forward 
hatchway and were wafted aft by the wind, but did not 
spread below the main deck. 

JURY VIEW THE COURSE. 

Arrangements were made by Coroner Joseph I. 
Berry, of the Bronx, to take the jur}'^ over the course 
taken by the "General Slocum " on the day of the fire. 
The jurors went from the improvised courtroom to the 
Second Battery Armory, Bathgate avenue and 177th 
street, in automobiles to Clausen's Point, where they 
stopped for luncheon. 

Coroner Berry had arranged to hold a session in his 
courtroom in the afternoon and had subpoenaed several 
witnesses to be there at two o'clock, including Captain 
William Van Schaick. But the captain and others were 
dismissed until next morning without explanation, as the 
Coroner was unable to return in time to hear them. 
Jurors who started over the scene of the disaster with the 
Coroner, on the police boat " Patrol " were anxious to see 
the raised hull, and so the trip was extended far beyond 
the limits originally set. 

In tlie Erie Basin the men had to climbover a tramp 
steamship and over several rickety boards into the black- 



SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREED. 305 

ened embers of the ill-fated vessel. Coroner Berry, who 
had led the way, assembled the jury about an opening 
on the deck down which there had formerly been stairs. 
On one side were piled musty life preservers with long 
rents through which granulated cork had escaped, bar- 
rels, boxes of bottles, casks and rubbish of all kinds, in- 
cluding some salt meadow hay, such as is used for pack- 
ing glasses. 

Thomair F. Freel, former fire marshal, working on 
the case as ai? expert for the District Attorney, was 
sworn as a witness. Standing in the glare of the sun, 
he said he had made an examination of the hull after it 
had been raised, and had found forward the debris that 
now littered that portion of the deck. 

BEGAN IN A BARREL. 

"Where did the fire originate?" inquired the 
Coroner. 

" Inside of this barrel," replied Mr, Freel, indicat- 
ing one by his side. 

It had contained hay, he said, and the evidence was 
clear that the flames had started inside and burned 
upward. The boards were charred from within. Some 
of the staves had been burned right through and had 
evidently fallen blazing upon hay scattered on the floor. 
From that point the fire had leaped to the stairs and 
had done more damage to the upper portion of the cabin 
than it had to the material piled around the barrel. 

Under cross-examination Mr. Freel said the boat 
had been under water for eight days before he made his 
examination, and he could not tell what had drifted into 
the cabin. 

On the return of the jury up the river Captain 

N.Y. 20 



niu; SLAUGHTER CAUSED BY GREEU. 

Kdward \'aii Woert first pilot ou the ''Slocuin/' took the 
wheel of the " Patrol," going over as nearly as possible 
the same course that he had taken on the day of the 
disaster. He thought the " Slocum " was then going at 
approximately the same speed that the "Patrol" had 
reached at that point. He insisted that, to his mind, 
Captain Van Schaick had adopted the best possible 
course in running the "Slocum" as close as possible to 
the North Brother Island dock and then beaching her just 
beyond on the northwest side of the island. 

JURY HAVE AN OPINION. 

Many of the jurors present did not hesitate to 
express the opinion that a grave mistake in judgment 
had been made by Captain Van Schaick in not beaching 
the boat on the New York shore at some point between 
the entrance to the Great Kill and the south shore of 
North Brother Island. 

Assistant District Attorney Francis P. Garvan was 
especially anxious to obtain confirmation of rumors that 
reached him that there was a fire in the forward cabin of 
the "General Slocum" on the afternoon of June 14th, 
All of the members of the crew of the "Slocum" told 
Mr. Garvan that thc}^ did not know of any fire that 
occurred on June i^th. 

At a special meeting of theMaj'or's Relief Committee 
named to look after the survivors of "General Slocum" 
disaster announcement was made b}- Jacob H. SchifF, 
chairman of the Relief Committee, that $108,504.04 had 
been received, and that this sum was considered ample 
to meet all demands. The subscription list has been 
closed, and it was stated that the $50,000 offered b}^ the 
city in case of emergency will not l)e needed. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 

ON June 28th, the Coroner's jury brought in its ver- 
dict. In consequence of the verdict, Coroner 
Berry of The Bronx issued warrants, charging man- 
slaughter in the second degree, for President Barnaby 
and the whole board of directors of the Knickerbocker 
Steamboat Company, which owned the " General Slo- 
cum," also for the " Slocum's" captain. Van Schaick ; for 
Mate Kdward Flanagan, for Commodore Pease of the 
Knickerbocker fleet and for United States Steamboat 
Inspector Henry Lundberg. 

Lundberg was surrendered by his counsel as soon 
as the issuing of the warrants was announced. He was 
admitted to bail in $1,000. Mate Flanagan, who had 
been detained in a room in the Second Battery's armory, 
where the inquest was held, was brought in and arrested. 
His bail was set at $1,000, which he furnished. Presi- 
dent Barnaby was brought uptown by his counsel and 
after submitting to arrest was released in $5,000 bail. 

The jury came into court at quarter to 9 o'clock at 
night. Coroner Berry asked if a verdict had been 
reached. Foreman Thorn was so hoarse that he was 
unable to read aloud the typewritten document he car- 
ried. He handed it to a fellow-juryman to read for 
him. 

The verdict rehearsed the history of the " Slocum's " 
trip up toward the Sound until she was destroyed. The 
jury expressed its belief that the boat was not equipped 

307 



308 STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 

witli propel life-saving or fire-figliting appliances, and 
that lier crew was neither efficient nor well drilled. 

It was held that President Barnab}' and his associates 
as directors, especially James K. Atkinson, who was asso- 
ciated with Mr. Barnaby as managing director, were 
responsible for the lack of provision for disaster on the 
"Slocum;" Captain Van Schaick was charged with 
criminal neglect of dnty for permitting the boat to be in 
an unsafe condition, so was Captain Pease, commodore of 
the company's fleet ; Mate Flanagan was described as a 
coward, and attention was drawn to the fact that he had 
no license ; Inspector Lundberg was charged with not 
having made a proper inspection of the " Slocum." 

CHARGED ^VITH CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE. 

The jury charged all the persons it named with crim- 
inal negligence. The Federal prosecuting officers were 
asked to get after Lundberg, Secretary Cortelyou was 
asked to take steps to make future inspections of vessels 
in this harbor "efficient and honest." 

As soon as the reading of the verdict was over, 
Assistant District Attorney Garvan got up and asked the 
Coroner to issue warrants for the arrest of the persons 
against whom the jury's verdict had made charges. 

Terrence J. TvIcManus and ex-Judge Dittenhoefer, 
counsel for the Knickerbocker directors, jnmped into the 
air with a storm of objections. 

"It would be an outrage," said Mr. McManus, "to 
arrest these men to-night. They can be found to-mor- 
row without any trouble. They are substantial business 
men. They are not going to run away from this thing." 

"I don't see," said Mr. Garvan, who spoke in a tone 
which showed the weariness caused by his work of the 



STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 309 

last two weeks over the case, " I don't see wliy these two 
men should be treated any better or any worsfe or in any 
way differently from any other men charged with man- 
slaughter in the second degree." 

"Oh, I don't know!" sneered Mr. McManns. "I 
can't remember that there was any such haste to arrest 
the New York Central directors when a Coroner's jury 
brought in a verdict against them. The District At- 
torney seems to see why some people should b^ treated 
differently from others." 

Mr. Gar van started to make an emphatic reply but 
was restrained by Coroner Berry, who said that he would 
issue the warrants at once. 

OFFICIALS PLACED UNDER BAIL. 

Former Justice Julius Mayer of the Court of Special 
Sessions rose to say that he represented Inspector Lund- 
berg, who was present and desired to surrender himself 
and give bail. The Coroner admitted him to bail in 
$i,ooo. Mr. Mayer suggested during the proceedings 
that he doubted whether the local authorities had any 
jurisdiction over Lundberg anyway, but he said he would 
not bring up the question at the moment. 

Mate Flanagan was brought in. Mr. Garvan said 
he would be satisfied with $i,ooo bail for him. The 
Coroner said he would fix the bail at $5,000. Mr. Mc- 
Manns asked why the Coroner wanted more b?.il than 
the District Attorney, and the bail was finally fixed at 
$1,000. 

Mr. McManus and Mr. Dittenhoefer said that they 
would go out and try to find as many of their clients as 
possible. At half-past 10 they appeared with Frank 
Barnaby between them. Coroner Berry fixed Barnaby's 



810 STKAMliOAT DIKKCTOKS AKRKSTKD. 

bail at $5,000, aud it was furnished. It was announced 
tliat Assistant Engineer Brandow and Deckhands Coak- 
le\' aud Twonibly would be committed to the House of 
Detention as witnesses. 

The Coroner left the Armory at a little after 11 
o'clock. No more prisoners were brought in up to that 
time. The unserved warrants were turned over to Capt. 
Ferris, of the Bathgate avenue station. He was informed 
that all the officers of the company would surrender 
themselves at Coroner Berry's office next day. 

It was understood that the case is not likely to be 
prosecuted in the courts of New York county, and would 
go before the Federal Grand Jury. 

CAPTAIN ON WITNESS STAND. 

Capt. Van Schaick was the first witness of the day. 
He was brought to court from Lebanon Hospital in an 
ambulance, attended by a hospital phj^sician. He was 
carried to the court room in a wheel chair, aud on it 
lifted to the witness stand. The captain's riglit heel was 
broken by jumping on the rocks after the steamer was 
beached, his spine was injured, and his hands and face 
were burned. The injured foot was in a plaster cast and 
the leg in a sling. 

In answer to preliminary questions, he said he was 
53 years old. Tlien he corrected himself and said he 
was 63. He said he had been a pilot forty j'cars, licensed 
master thirty 3'ears, and had been captain of the '' Slo- 
cuni " since she was built. Almost at the outset Terrence 
J. McManus, attorney for the Knickerbocker Steamboat 
Company, interrupted. 

" This witness is under arrest. It is the desire of 
the District Attorney to get him to testif}^ to things ou 



STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTr.'. :j11 

which a possible indictment may be predicated. I have 
advised him to refuse to answer all questions, but it 
should be distinctly understood that he does not refuse 
to answer on the ground that it would incriminate or de- 
grade him." 

"The witness is not under arrest," said Coroner 
Berry. " He is only, technically speaking, in the House 
of Detention. The witness must either testify or refuse 
to do so because he believes his answers would tend to 
incriminate or degrade him." 

A long wrangle ensued and when Mr. Gar van got 
back to the witness Captain Van Schaick declined to 
answer whether he had ever had anything to do with the 
fire apparatus or not. The examination went on : 

NUMBER OF PASSENGERS ALLOWED. 

Q. How many life preservers were bought for the 
*'Slocum " since she was launched ? A. From 200 to 
300. She was first allowed to carry 2,500 passengers. 
In 1895 she got a permit to carry 2,750, and at that time 
the new life preservers were bought. 

Q. Since 1891 have any life preservers been con- 
demned by the United States steamboat inspectors ? A. 
Maybe four or five. 

Q. Have you condemned any since 1891 ? A. Maybe 
fifteen or twenty. 

Q. Were any of the life preservers bought since 
1891 ? A. No, but something like 300 were repaired by 
sewing on new straps. 

The witness said that he had never discussed the 
equipment of the ''Slocum" with Frank A. Barnaby, 
president of the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company or 
with any other of the company's officers, except Secretary 



ni'J STF.AIMI30AT DIRF.CTORS ARRESTED. 

Atkinson. Captain Van Schaick said that Mr. Atkinson 
was aboard the "Slocum" before the excursion started 
and remarked that the boat was in fine shape. Mr. Gar- 
van asked if Mr. Barnaby or any of'the other officers, ex- 
cept Mr. Atkinson, had ever made any inquiry as to the 
equipment of the boat. The captain replied that no such 
inquiries h:id ever been made. 

" Did Lundberg reject an}' of 3'our life-preservers ? " 
asked Mr. Garvan. 

" I believe he rejected one. He said it looked dirty." 

This reply brought out laughter all over the court 
room. 

" How long had the hose nearest the compartment 
where the fire started been 'in use ? " asked Mr. Garvan. 

OLD HOSE LONG IN USE. 

*' All that hose had been in use since the boat was 
built," was the repl}-. 

"Did Lundberg make any tests of the hose ? " 

" No, sir ; not so far as I saw." 

The witness stated that he had not tested tlic life- 
boats or life rafts this year, and seemed to be surprised 
that Mr. Garvan should ask such a foolish question. He 
insisted, however, in contradiction of all the other wit- 
nesses, that there had been fire drills on the "Slocuni" 
this season. There had been as many as three or four 
fire drills. This followed : 

Q. Well, what did they consist of? A. Oh, run- 
ning water through the hose and showing the crew about 
the life preservers. 

Q. Can't you give an}' more details ? A. No, I 
can't go into details, and am getting very tired. 

Cnpt. \'an Schaick was jiermitted to take a rest for 



STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 313 

an hour and was then recalled. When lie took the stand 
again he was asked where he was when the fire was dis- 
covered. In answer to that question and to others that 
followed it the captain said : 

"When I first heard of the fire I was in the pilot 
house. We were then about three lengths north of the 
Sunken Meadows. I ordered that she be sent ahead at 
full speed and then went down to see what the fire 
amounted to. I got part way down and the fire drove me 
back. It was sweeping up from below like a tornado. 
I saw that I could do nothing there, so I rushed back to 
the pilot house and said to Capt. Van Woert : 

ORDERS TO BEACH THE BOAT. 

"'Capt. Ed., she is gone. Beach her on North 
Brother Island as soon as you can. Skin the dock at the 
island and put her on the beach starboard side toward 
the island, so that the people can get off away from the 
fire.' 

" Then I took a position about fifteen feet forward of 
the pilot house and directed the work of beaching the 
boat. After she was beached I jumped overboard and 
injured myself and got ashore as best I could." 

" Did you see any of the crew ? " 

" No, they were two decks below me." 

"Were the boats lowered? " 

" Why, no. There was not time for anvthing like 
that." 

Judge Dittenhoefer asked Capt. Van Schaick how 
many passengers he had carried in the course of his 
career as a river captain. 

"Well," replied the witness, " I figured up three or 
four years ago that up to that time I had carried about 



814 STEAMBOAT DIRF.CTORS ARRESTED. 

30,000,000 people, and not oueof tliem received injury of 
an}'' kind wliile they were in ni}- charge." 

Jacob S. Jacobs, the candy man, and August Lutjens, 
cashier of the l)ar aboard the "Slocum," were called when 
Captain Van Schaick was permitted to leave the stand 
to take a rest. Jacobs said that he had great difficult}^ 
in pulling down the life-preservers, that there was n(me 
of the crew around to give any help and that he didn't 
see the captain from the time the fire was discovered 
until the boat was beached. Lutjens said that he saw 
the captain soon after the steamer started, and Van 
Schaick said: "Lutjens, don't give my men ttx. niurh 
to drink to-day." 

SMOKE FROM FORWARD CABIN. 

Lutjens said that he saw smoke coming out of the 
forward cabin when the "Slocum" was about off Nine- 
tieth street. He fixed that point, because a moment 
afterward he noticed the Ninetj^'-second street ferry. Ho 
said he saw the men uncoiling hose, but that no water 
came through it. They worked at the hose a short time 
and then jumped overboard. 

Frank Perditzki, an unusually bright lad of four- 
teen, who w^ent on the excursion with his mother, told 
about the clearest stor}- of the fire that was told duriii<^- 
the inquest. He said: 

" I was near the pilot house and saw smoke coming 
up from below. The captain was in the pilot house and 
I shouted to him that there was a fire on board. He 
shouted back: 

" 'Shut up and mind your business !' " 

" The boat was then opposite East Eighty-third 
street. I went down on the main deck to find ni}^ mother, 



STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 315 

but when I couldn't I jumped overboard and swam asbore 
on North Brother Island." 

" How do you know the boat was off East Eighty- 
third street when you first saw the fire ?" asked Mr. 
Garvan, 

" I know," answered the lad, '' because I saw the 
East River Park, which is there, and I know that park 
well. 

James A. Dumout, United States local inspector of 
hulls at New York and formerly supervising inspector- 
general of the United States Steamboat Inspection Ser- 
vice, was called. He said it had never been the practice 
to license mates, except on oceangoing vessels, unless 
captains insisted on it. Then a license was issued if the 
applicant showed he knew how to stow cargo. Mr. Du- 
mont said that it had been the invariable ruling of the 
Board of United States Steamboat Inspectors that river 
vessels, unless cargo-carrying boats, had no hold. There- 
fore, the "Slocum " had no hold. 

INSPECTORS TAUGHT BUSINESS. 

Then Mr. Dumont told how assistant inspectors of 
hulls, like Henry Lundberg, who inspected the "Slo- 
cum," were taught their business. A probationer was 
sent out with experienced inspectors for three weeks and 
told to watch what they did. Then they were sent out 
by themselves. He said it was no part of Lundberg's 
duty to further inspect life-preservers than to see that 
they contained no large holes and that the straps were on. 

The quality of all life-preservers is passed on and 
they are stamped where they are made. That they are 
stamped is prima facie evidence to an assistant inspector 
that they are all right. Life-preservers, with proper care, 



316 STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 

the witness said, might be serviceable for loo years. It 
was not the business of an assistant inspector to test pre- 
servers in the water or take from the boat life belts he 
had condemned. 

Former Justice Julius Mayer, chief counsel for Lund- 
berg, was in court for the first time. Dumont's testi- 
mony was so altogether favorable to Lundberg that Mr. 
Ma3'cr sprung a surprise by calling his man to the stand 
as Dumont stepped down. Then Mr. Ma3'er said: 

REFUSED TO TESTIFY. 

" I have had to be out of town for several days. 
When I left I gave directions to Lundberg to refuse to 
testify on the ground that it might incriminate or de- 
grade him. I took that precaution because I didn't know 
what might happen. But Mr. Dumont has substantiated 
the story told to me by my client respecting his duties in 
every particular. Lundberg has been anxious to tell his 
stor}', and now he'll luive his chance. Lundberg, go 
ahead and tell the jur}' what 3'ou did b}^ way of inspect- 
ing the 'Slocum.' " 

The young man went on and told a straight storj- of 
what he did, and w^hen asked by this or that juror why 
he wasn't more thorough in this or that particular he 
said he'd never been taught to do more than he had done. 
That which he had done was just what Dumont said was 
required of an assistant inspector of hulls. \\'hen neither 
Mr. Garvan nor an}- of the jury was able to shake Lund- 
berg, Juror Cabot asked : 

"What's it worth to ^-ou to inspect a boat ?" 
Judge Mayer was on his feet in a jiffy and said : 
" If the Court please, I object to the question, and I 
resent the insult wliicli it implies. Furthermore, I chal- 



STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 317 

5er>^, here and now, the right of that juror to sit longer 
in this case. That question proves that he has forfeited 
all rights to sit in judgment here." 

"I think," said Coroner Berry, "that the juror 
meant no insult. I think he intended to ask what salary 
Lundberg gets. If, Mr. Cabot, you meant what Judge 
Mayer thinks you meant, you should have never said it 
and you must withdraw it." 

Cabot jumped iuto the opening which the Coroner 
had made and said he referred to salary. Lundberg said 
he got $2,000 a year. After James K. Atkinson, secre- 
tary of the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company, had pro- 
duced the minutes of the company's meetings. Coroner 
Berry charged the jury, in part, as follows : 

STRONG LANGUAGE OF CORONER. 

" A fortnight ago it was inconceivable that the ap- 
palling disaster we have just finished investigating could 
occur in waters about our city. People had the utmost 
confidence that they were safeguarded on pleasure trips 
of the character of the St. Mark's Lutheran Sunday 
school excursion. 

" Yet, within an hour after the ' General Slocum ' 
left the Third street pier she was a burned wreck, and 
nearly i,ooo of her passengers were either burned or 
drowned. It is your duty to determine whether these 
deaths, or any of them, were due to the criminal negli- 
gence of any other person or persons. 

" The law requires a carrier of passengers to exercise 
the strictest vigilance in receiving a passenger, convey- 
ing him to his destination and setting him down in 
safety. A passenger cannot know, nor is he presumed 
to know, anything about the machinery of a ship or its 



318 STEAMBOAT DIRF.CTORS ARRESTED. 

equipmeut or appliances. He has paid his passage and 
is wholly passive in the hands of and is at the mercy of 
the vessel, their agents and emplo3^ees. 

"The highest court of this State— the Court of Ap- 
peals — has held that the rule requires no such particular 
precaution as became apparent after a disaster, which 
might have prevented its consequences, but such precau- 
tious as would be dictated by the utmost care and pru- 
dence of a very cautious person before the disaster, and 
without knowledge that it was to occur. 

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED. 

" You should consider the business in which the 
vessel was employed, the character of the excursion 
parties it was expected to carry, the number of passen- 
gers it carried, and also the fact that as a rule such ex- 
cursions were made up largely of women and children. 
The care that might be sufficient to guard the safety of 
ablebodied men might not be sufficient for others phj'^si- 
cally less able to take care of themselves. 

"The first question, therefore, for you to determine is 
whether or not such care and prudence to guard against 
the catastrophe was employed in the fire equipment and 
the life-saving appliances of the 'General Slocum,' as 
a cautious man, mindful of the dangers and possibilities 
of the business in which the vessel was employed, would 
have exercised. 

" Now, the directors of a corporation are its manag- 
ing officers. Their authority and powers in the aggre- 
gate are co-extensive with the corporation itself. In 
this respect they are not only the agent, as I have said, 
but practically the corporation itself, and their duties 
and liabilities are the same as thos* of natural persons. 



STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 319 

"If, in tlie conduct of the company's business, an 
officer or director participates in an act or omission whicli 
constitutes a violation of law lie is criminally liable 
therefor in the same way and to the same extent as if he 
had participated in such act or omission while acting as 
the agent of an individual. 

"Nor is it of the slightest importance on the ques- 
tion of the criminal liability of the Knickerbocker 
Steamboat Company's officers and directors whether or 
not the Government Inspectors performed or violated 
their duty. The duty of the corporation's representa- 
tives was not affected at all by what the inspectors did 
or did not do. 

FIXING THE BLAME. 

" You will also determine in your verdict and de- 
clare whether or not the inspectors, and which of the 
inspectors, if any, were negligent in the performance of 
their duties or wilfully made a false certificate in regard 
to the vessel's life-saving equipment." 

The following is the full text of the verdict of the 
Coroner's jury : 

" The said deceased, Henry Warnhose, and upward 
of 900 other persons came to their death by criminal 
means and in the following manner : 

" I. That the deceased, together with excursionists 
to the number of 1,500 and upward, a majority of whom 
were women and young children, were, on the fifteenth 
day of June, 1904, passengers on board the steamboat 
called the 'General Slocum,' owned by the Knicker- 
bocker Steamboat Company, of which Frank A. Barnaby 
was and is the president, and James K. Atkinson was 
and is the secretary and general passenger and traffic 



820 STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 

manager ; the said Barnaby and Atkinson being also the 
managing directors of the company and in full charge 
and control of its business and affairs, and that the said 
steamboat was in command of William H. Van Schaick, 
its captain, and was being used in carrying the said ex- 
f cursionists from the pier at the foot of East Third street 
to a certain landing on Long Island Sound, called Locust 
Grove, and back again to said dock. 

INEFFICIENT EQUIPMENT. 

" 2. That although it was the duty of the said Barn- 
aby, Atkinson, Van Schaick and also Captain John A. 
Pease, acknowledged commodore of the fleet, to have seen 
that the said steamer was provided with, before its depart- 
nre, a proper and suitable fire equipment and an efficient 
and well-drilled complement of disciplined men to operate 
the same in case of emergency, and also to have provided 
the said steamboat with such number and character of 
good, efficient and available life preservers and with other 
life-saving appliances as would best secure the safet}' of 
all persons on board the same in case of fire or other dis- 
aster, they and each of them did not only wholly neglect 
to do so, but on the contrary furnished and supplied, and 
had in and on board of the said steamboat, on the said fif- 
teenth day of June, 1904, a wholh^ improper and unsuit- 
able fire extinguishing equipment and a wholl3nnefficient 
and undrilled complement of men, all of whom were un- 
disciplined, to operate the same, as well as an insufficient 
number of good and available life preservers and other 
life-saving appliances to properly secure thesafet}^ of the 
persons on board the said vessel in case of disaster. 

" 3. That this same condition of affairs existed when, 
on the fifth da}' of Maj^, 1904, Assistant Steamboat In- 



STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 321 

spector of Hulls Heury Lundberg, of the United States 
Steamboat Inspection Service, inspected the vessel and 
approved of its fire-extinguishing and life-saving equip- 
ment and appliances. 

"4. And while the said steamboat was still in the 
waters of the East River, within the county of New York, 
and not having yet reached Long Island Sound, a fire oc- 
curred in the hold, which, had there been a proper fire- 
extinguishment equipment and suitable appliances and 
au efficient and well-drilled complement of men to oper- 
ate the same, might readily have been extinguished. 

DRIVEN OVERBOARD BY FLAMES. 

" 5. That in consequence of the neglect and failure 
of the said Barnaby, Atkinson, Van Schaick, Pease and 
the other directors of the company named below to pro- 
vide such equipment, appliances and men, and the ineffi- 
ciency and the incompetency of the latter, and also be- 
cause of the absence of a licensed and trained mate to 
command the latter, and direct them, the said fire was 
not extinguished, and spread to such an extent that the 
deceased were forced to leave the said vessel in order to 
escape the flames. 

" 6. That because of the insufficient number of good 
and available life preservers and other life saving appa- 
ratus on board of the said vessel, many of the deceased 
were forced to jump therefrom into the v/ater without auy 
means of self-preservation, and were drowned. 

" 7. That the lives of the deceased were destroyed 
by and through the before-mentioned misconduct of tbe 
said Barnaby, Atkinson, Van Schaick, Pease and the 
other directors. 

" 8. That acts constituting such misconduct and 

N.Y. 21 



322 STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESIKD. 

neglect were in flagrant violation of the provisions of the 
Federal laws to which the vessel was subject." 

After careful consideration, the jury comes to the 
following conclusions and makes the following recom- 
mendations : 

" I. That the president, Frank A. Barnaby, the 
secretar}', James K. Atkinson, and the Board of Direc- 
tors of the Knickerbocker Steamboat Companj^, namcl}-: 
Frank A. Barnaby, Charles E. Hill, James K. Atkinson, 
C. Delacy Evans, Robert K. Story, Floyd S. Corbin and 
Frank G. Dexter, were guilty of criminal negligence in 
the failure to see to the proper equipment of the 'Gen- 
eral Slocnni ' in the matter of the fire-fighting and life 
saving appliances on board said boat. 

CAPTAIN RESPONSIBLE, 

" 2. That the captain, William H. Van Schaick, 
should be held criminally responsible for the accident. 

" 3. That Captain John A. Pease, the acknowledged 
commodore of the fleet, be held criminally responsible 
for his failure to properly equip the ' General Slocum ' 
with the fire fighting and life saving appliances. 

" 4. That Edward Flanagan, the mate, acted in a 
cowardly manner, and we recommend that he be held 
criminally responsible for failure to perform his duty on 
board the 'General Slocum' on the day of the disaster. 

" 5. That in the opinion of this jur}- the misconduct 
of Henry Lundberg, Government Inspector, in failing to 
report to his superiors the true facts concerning the ves- 
sel's fire extinguishing and life saving equipment should 
be brought to the notice of the United Slates prosecuting 
officials, and we further hold that said Henry Lundberg 
be held for criminal negligence b}- reason of his incom- 



STEAMBOAT DIRECTORS ARRESTED. 323 

petent, careless and indifferent inspection of the 'Gen- 
eral Slocuni's' hull on the 5th day of May, 1904, 

"The jury are also of the opinion that the system 
of inspection which prevails in the harbor of New York 
is very inefficient, and does not properly examine whether 
the life preserving apparatus and fire appliances on the 
vessels of this harbor are in proper and suitable condi- 
tion to prevent loss of life, and we recommend to the 
Secretary of Commerce and Labor that he issue such 
instructions for the supervising and local boards of in- 
spectors as will cause them to efficiently and honestly 
examine the steamboats plying in and about this harbor." 

The Aldermen authorized the issue of special reve- 
nue bonds to the amount of $50,000 to pay for the burial 
of the unidentified victims of the " General Slocum " dis- 
aster and to meet the expenses incurred by the Police 
and Health departments in the work of recovering bodies 
and caring for the injured. 

A resolution urging the Fire Department to assign 
at least two firemen to every excursion steamer of the 
harbor was referred to the Committee on Laws and Leg- 
islation. The committee was directed to confer with the 
Mayor and Fire Commissioner for the purpose of carry- 
ing the plan into effect if it should be found that the 
sanction of the Federal authorities is needed. 

Subscriptions acknowledged raised the total of the 
relief fund to $109,801.09. Four little children of Public 
School 116, accompanied by two of their teachers, called 
on the Mayor and presented to him a purse containing 
$50 for the relief fund. The money was contributed by 
the children of the school. The Mayor thanked the 
children and praised the self-denial they had practised to 
raise so large an amount a> they did in their school. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 

IMPRESSIVE ceremonies that were in the nature of 
public obsequies over the "Slocum's" dead were 
witnessed by an audience that filled the great assembly 
room of Cooper Union to the utmost limit of its seating 
capacity. It was the memorial service organized by the 
Mayor's Relief Committee to give final and formal 
expression to the sympathy of the people of New York 
in the terrible sorrow which fell at one blow upon so large 
a number of their fellow-citizens. 

Mayor McClellan presided, being introduced by IMr. 
Julius Harburger, who acted as temporary chairman. A 
vast majority of the audience, as well as of those who 
occupied scats on the platform, were of German lineage, 
and quite half of the audience proper was made up of 
women. Here and there were persons in mourning, and 
at times during the evening a number of the women were 
in tears. But it was evident that comparatively few of 
those present were from the intimately afflicted families. 
At the right of the stage and extending in a com- 
pact, wedge-shaped body were 400 representatives of the 
United German Singing Societies. The^^ were under the 
leadership of Carl Hein, and at intervals thc}^ chanted 
two choruses, Silcher's " Schottischer Bardenchor" and 
Pfael's " Grabgesang." The Metropolitan Opera House 
orchestra, under the leadership of Nahan Franko, occu- 
pied all of the right-hand side of the stage. 

The ceremonies opened with the orchestra playing 

324 



DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 325 

Beethoven's funeral marcli, after which Mr. Harburger 
made a few remarks defining the object of the nieetiug 
and called upon the Rev. John J. Heismann to make the 
opening prayer. At its conclusion Mr. Harburger intro- 
duced Mayor McClellan, who said : 

*' Nothing that I can say or that you can say, noth- 
ing that any of us can do, can mitigate the sorrow of 
those whose loved ones have gone before. 

''The victims of the 'Slocum' were almost all women 
and children. They came from the sturdy German race, 
industrious, self-respecting and frugal, among the best 
citizens we have, whom we can ill afford to spare. For 
them home is all in all. Their men work for the love of 
home and for the wife and children it represents. In a 
few appalling minutes nearly a thousand families were 
broken up, nearly a thousand homes destroyed. 

UNIVERSAL SYMPATHY. 

"The breadwinners, whose chief incentive in life 
has been blotted out, whose wives and children are no 
more, must work on unaided, uncheered and alone, for 
we cannot help them. But in their hour of trial we can 
at least show them that we share their sorrow, and assure 
them that it is the common property of the entire people. 

" To me the chief pathos of week before last was our 
utter helplessness in the face of a calamity. The work 
of destruction was so complete that there was pitifully 
little that could be done. And yet that little was done 
so well, and so generously, and so modestly v/ithal, that 
it makes one proud of American manhood and woman- 
hood as well that always rise to the occasion and never 
fail to do their duty. 

"It would be invidious to single out any one single 



S2C niRGES lOR THE DEAD. 

city departmeut for praise when all, from highest to 
lowest, from Coininissioners down, did their best. The 
fortitude, the gentleness and the consideration that was 
shown at North Brother Island and on the Twenty-sixth 
street pier by city employees and citizens alike was of 
the kind that asks neither reward nor recognition, for it 
came spontaneously from the hearts of true men and true 
women. The dead have been buried and the survivors 
cared for, and those who were in w^ant have been relieved 
by the public spirited generosity of our people. 

PUBLIC EXPRESSION OF GRIEF. 

" Before the wreck of the ' Slocum ' passes into his- 
tory we have met here this evening to give public ex- 
pression to the grief of the people of New York over the 
greatest disaster in her annals, to mourn for those who 
in God's good time and in God's own way have been 
called to Him, to join together, regardless of race, sect 
or creed, in the words of resignation that God in His 
infinite mercy has taught mankind to say and to mean : 
Thy will be done." 

Following the Mayor's address the orchestra played 
vSchumann's " Traeumerei," and then Mayor McClellan 
introduced George V. von Skal of the editorial staff of 
the Staats-Zeitung, who made a short address in German, 
which was followed by a chorus from the singing societies. 
Mayor McClellan then introduced Judge Morgan J. 
O'Brien, who, among other things, said : 

" No philosophy, not even the consolations of re- 
ligion, can obliterate such grief as that which has come 
to so many of our fellow citizens. The disaster was the 
most terrible in the annals of our city, and I feel that 
it is not wholly inappropriate that I should be called 



DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 327 

iipon to say something on this occasion, for I was born 
within a few hundred feet of the modest little church to 
which these good people who are now so sorely stricken 
belong, 

" I then came to know the character of the people 
of that neighborhood and to appreciate the industry and 
thrift and courage which they put into their life work. 
Science tells us, those learned in astronomy tell us, that 
not a star in the heavens, however small it be, could be 
removed without impairing the equilibrium of the uni- 
verse. And so I fully believe it is with our social 
organization, that not a life can be removed from it with- 
out a tendency to impair the moral equilibrium. 
SENTIMENTS COMMON TO ALL. 
" Thank God, the day has passed when differences 
of race and religion separate people, and that now we 
begin to understand the rights and the sentiments of 
others as we do our own. Let a great wrong be done to 
any body of people, no matter of what race or creed, or 
how far remote, or let a great sorrow befall, such as has 
befallen here in New York, and instantly there pulsates 
throughout all Christendom a sentiment of indignation 
or pitying sorrow, 

" So, as we are thus assembled here to-night we are 
assembled to manifest not only the sympathy of the 
city of New York with those who are under this afflic- 
tion, but the sympathy of all the world." 

The ceremonies closed with a selection by the 
orchestra at the close of which the audience remained 
for a space of several minutes sitting with bowed heads 
and in silence broken here and there by a suppressed 
sob. 



328 



DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 



During the day a committee representing the French 
societies of New York City presented to Mayor Mc- 
Clellau a bronze memorial subscribed for by citizens of 
French extraction who sympathize with the " Slocum " 
sufferers. The memorial was in the form of a bronze 
mural cluster about two feet long and about eighteen 
inches broad. A transverse piece represents a plank of 
a wrecked ship and on this is the name of the burned 
steamer in large capitals. Waves are seen to be wash- 
ing over the bit of wreckage, while beneath this emblem 
is the figure of a salamander, typifying fire. Inscribed 
on the memorial are the words : 

'"General Slocum,' Regrets des Francais de New 
York, Juin, 1904." 

MEMORIAL GRATEFULLY ACCEPTED. 

The memorial was taken to the City Hall by a com- 
mittee consisting of Louis A. Risse, chairman ; J. B. 
Martin, vice-chairman ; Antoine La Blanche, A. Siltz 
and Pierre Feitu. The presentation speech was made 
by Mr. Risse. He spoke of the sorrow felt by the French- 
American citizens and told the Mayor that it was their 
desire that the memorial should be either placed on the 
proposed monument to the dead or upon the walls of St. 
Mark's Lutheran Church. 
/ In thanking the committee on behalf of the city, 

the Mayor said before deciding upon the disposition of 
the bronze he would communicate with the Rev. Mr. Haas. 
Four Chinamen walked into the outer office of the 
Mayor's suite shortly afternoon, and laying down before 
Sergt. Kennel a large package the spokesman of the four 
said : " Please give this to the Mayor. It is from the 
Chinamen who want to help the Mayor's fund." 



DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 329 

Sergeant Kennel opened the package and found 
tliat it contained money. He counted $657, the greater 
part in one dollar bills. The four also handed him a 
big book in which was written in Chinese characters the 
names of the subscribers. The book showed in separate 
columns how much had been given by Pell street, how 
much by Mott street and how much by other streets com- 
prising the Chinese district. 

The bearers of the money were told that the Mayor 
was not in, but if they were disappointed, they were too 
polite to givf any sign of it. They merely asked 
for a receifc for the money, and when they got it 
they bowed respectfully and started back to Chinatown. 

The Mayor said afterward that he v^as sorry he was 
not in the hall when the Chinamen came. ' ' I would have 
liked very much to meet them," he added. 
MEDAL FOR A HEROINE. 

Mary McCanu, the most modestly unconscious hero- 
ine who ever risked her life to save others, is to have a 
reminder of her splendid work in the " Slocum" disaster, 
which will include both practical significance and signal 

honor. 

In the midst of its harrowing work of sifting the 
facts and fixing the blame the Coroner's jury found one 
congenial task which it designed to keep a profound 
secret till its accomplishment. This is the presentation 
of a gold medal to Miss McCann, along with a generous 
purse. A special design has been agreed upon, which 
shall commemorate the terrible occasion, and an inscrip- 
tion that shall convey the thanks of a city to one of the 
m-ost recent of her citizens. 

Mary McCann is an Irish girl who only reached this 



330 DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 

country on May ii, and tlie attack of scarlet fever which 
followed soon after her landing was the chance that sent 
her to North Brother Island. In the absence of her rel- 
atives the city assumed care of her. She was a convales- 
cent patient on the day of the "Slocuni" fire. Again 
and again she dashed into the water, dragging out no 
less than six children, and stopped only when the doc- 
tors, seeing her exhausted condition, forcibly detained 
her. 

Tall and finely built, with her strength scarcely im- 
pared by her ilness, she gave her efforts to rescue the 
perishing without a moment's hesitation. And when the 
jury visited the island the brown-haired blue-eyed girl, 
who is hardly more than seventeen, was so naively un^ 
conscious of what she had done that there and then it 
was resolved to offer her some acknowledgement. 
HONOR FOR LIFE SAVERS. 

Coroner Berry said that the plan was the unanimous 
decision of the jury and had his warmest indorsement. 
He added that they had hoped to keep it from the public 
that they might have the added pleasure of surprising 
Mary McCann. 

Matron White, the Superintendent at the North 
Brother Island Hospital, reported Mary progressing rap- 
idly toward recovery. When told of her good fortune 
she said heartily : 

" I am glad to hear it, for she fully deserves it. 
North Brother Island turned out some wonderful hero- 
ines on that awful day." 

Another was Pauline Foote, the waitress, who is an 
expert swimmer and the possessor of more than one 
medal for life saving. 



DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 331 

Secretary Cortelyou of the Department of Commerce 
and Labor sent the following telegram from Washington 
to George Uhler, Supervising Inspector-General of the 
steamboat inspection service at New York : 

"You are hereby directed to begin at once the rein- 
spection that has been ordered of the passenger-carrying 
steamboats in New York harbor. Detail the best men 
in your service for this work, and order that those who 
made the inspection of any particular boat earlier in the 
season shall not make the reinspection now. 

ORDERS FOR INVESTIGATION. 

"Telegraph the several supervising inspectors in 
the service, except Captain Birmingham, of San Fran- 
cisco, who is too far away, and ask if they can spare 
without detriment to the interests committed to their 
charge some of their best men to assist in this work. 
Final judgment upon the character of the inspections 
heretofore made must properly await the report of the 
Federal investigation now in progress, but I believe this 
reinspection should be made. 

" In making the reinspection the regulations and 
the various circulars that have been issued by the de- 
partment from time to time for your service affords its 
officials definite instructions under existing law. 

" Report at once by telegraph the receipt of these 
instructions." 

The following is taken from the columns of a leading 
journal. 

" The promise of rigid investigation and relentless 
action in the matter of the ' Slocum ' disaster is being 
realized. As the result of the action of the Coroner's 
jury, which has been searching for the causes back of 



332 DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 

the loss of more tliau one fhousand human lives, the 
president and directors of the Knickerbocker Steamboat 
Company, owner of the burned excursion boat ; the 
captain and mate of the vessel, the commodore of the 
Knickerbocker fleet, and the United States inspector 
concerned, must face charges of manslaughter in the 
second degree. The extreme penalty of the crime in 
New York is ten 3'ears imprisonment. 

"The jury found, after painstaking inquiry, that the 
' Slocum ' was not equipped with proper life-saving or 
fire-fighting appliances, and that the crew was neither 
efficient nor well-drilled. In the face of this there was 
no alternative to charging criminal negligence against 
every man in any way responsible for the conditions. 
While it is manifestly improper to prejudge any individ- 
ual case, it is clear that a state of affairs has been shown 
in which individual responsibility exists, and to bring it 
home is a debt owing to both past and future. 

ACCUSED OF SLAUGHTER. 

" Many persons shrink from following this idea to 
its logical conclusion. While willing to admit the possi- 
ble criminality of those whose official positions bring 
them into active connection with a disaster, there is re- 
pugnance to charging the death of human beings to men 
whose complicity in the matter is generally considered 
negative. 

" In that very repugnance, which is made apparent 
at every turn, lies the real difficulty of preventing such 
occurrences as this ' Slocum ' calamity. Until the people 
at large realize the truth that a man who, whether from 
sheer thoughtlessness or desire for gain, permits the use 
of death-breeding agencies in his business is as deserving 



DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 



833 



of punislimeiit as tlie man wlio kills liis neighbor witli a 
pistol or poison, that difficulty must remain. 

" There is too much tendenc}^ nowadays to acquiesce 
in the devil-take-the-hindmost doctrine ; too much will- 
ingness to regard the old question, in all its varying 
inflections, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' as a justifiable 
defence of murderous carelessness. The vital sense of 
personal responsibility is lacking, often criminally lack- 
ing, in the walks of everyday life. Yet until that sense of 
responsibility is restored and made keen we must stand 
ready to be shocked by horrible 'accidents' again and 

again. 

" The verdict of the 'Slocum' jury opens the way 
to an object lesson of large preventive effect. It should 
be followed up swiftly and without hesitancy." 
NEWSPAPER PHILOSOPHY. 
Another journal gave expression to the public feel- 
ing in the following terms : 

"The men who have been pilloried by the Coroner's 
jury as responsible for the murder of a thousand people 
on the ' General Slocum ' will protest that it is unfair 
to single them out from the mass of excursion-boat 
owners'' and managers who have been doing the same 
things that they have done without having the bad luck 
to be caught. They say that they are no worse than 

the rest. 

"Very likely this is true, and that is the very reason 
why these prosecutions should be relentlessly pushea. 
We need some examples ' to encourage the others.' I* 
the mercenary wretches who equipped the 'Slocum* 
with rotten life-preservers and worthless fire-hose to save 
money, the criminally negligent inspectors who passed 



834 DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 

her outfit and the cowards who manned her were the only 
specimens of their kind, they might be left to the lash 
of their own consciences, if they have any. 

" But precisely because there are so many others of 
the same sort it is necessary to visit the utmost rigors of 
the law upon those we have been able to catch. It has cost 
a thousand lives to enable us to lay our hands on these ; 
let us see that the sacrifice shall not have been in vain. 

" It is often said that passengers by rail would be 
safer if every locomotive carried a director tied on the 
pilot. There will be more security on excursion boats if 
the owners, the managers and the inspectors of the 
' Slocum ' are tried, and not only convicted, but physic- 
ally lodged in the penitentiary. 

" Such an outcome will be especially gratifying be- 
cause the men responsible for this disaster seem to have 
been the only persons unaffected by the horror of it. So 
far as we have observed, no director or of&cial of the 
Knickerbocker Company has ever been credited with one 
spontaneous self-forgetful display of human feeling in 
connection with this calamity, which might have been 
expected to crush them all with shame, remorse and 
agonized sympathy. 

"The company from the first has defiantly taken a 
'What are you going to do about it ? ' attitude ; it refused 
to spend money to raise the hull of the ' Slocum ' and 
search for the bodies of the people it had murdered ; it 
has done nothing for the survivors ; it has expressed no 
regret for its past shortcomings and made no promises of 
amendment. No expense would ever be borne by this 
community with more hearty good-will than in giving 
these men a long season of free board up the Hudson." 



DIRGES FOR THE DEAD. 835 

Inveatigatiou of the disaster was begun by the 
Federal Grand Jury, with David D. Wylie as foreman. 
Assistant United States District Attorney Henry A. 
Wise, who was present throughout the inquest, examined 
several witnesses who had appeared in the former proceed- 
ing, including Benjamin F. Conklin, chief engineer of 
the " Slocura ; " Everett Brandow, second engineer ; Cap- 
tain Edward Van Woert, first pilot ; Edward Flanagan, 
mate ; William W. Tremble}^ and T. Collins, deck hands; 
General T. H. Barrett, United States Inspector of Boil- 
ers, and J. H. Fleming, an Assistant Inspector. 

James K. Atkinson, secretary of the Knickerbocker 
Company, had been subpoenaed as a witness. He went 
to the Post Office Building, accompanied by his counsel, 
Terence J, McManus, who had advised him to decline to 
answer questions, as he was already a defendant. Mr. 
Wise told Mr. Atkinson that he would not need him. 
Mr. Atkinson had been directed by a writ of duces tecum 
to produce some of the company's books. He explained 
to Mr. Wise that he could not obey the writ, as he had 
turned over the books to Coroner Joseph I. Berry, in the 
Bronx. 

Another session of the Grand Jury was appointed. 
The witnesses subpoenaed included George Owen, Daniel 
O'Neill, Thomas Lyon and Walter Payne, who worked 
on the "Slocum;" the Rev. Julius A. Schultz and 
Charles A. Lang, who were passengers on the steamer • 
Herman Burger, engineer in the gas works at the foot of 
East 139th street, and John A. Woodman, James Gaffney 
and Miss LiHie McGibbon, who were on North Brother 
Island at the time of the beaching there. 

Captain Van Schaick was not to be called as a wit- 
ness. It was deemed likely in the Post Of&ce Building 



336 DIRGES FOR Th^ DEAD. 

that in addition to finding several indictments the Grand 
Jury would hand in a presentment condemning the lax 
method of steamboat inspection. 

Herbert K. Smith, one of the commission appointed 
by Secretary Cortelyou to inquire into the conditions 
prevailing in this harbor, called on United States District 
Attorne}'- Burnett, who assigned his assistant, C. S. 
Houghton, to attend the hearings, which were to be held 
behind closed doors. It was said Commander C. McR. 
Winslow, who is on the commission, would make an 
independent report to the Navy Department, to which, it 
has frequently been urged, the Bureau of Steamboat 
Inspection should be transferred. 

Two of those found responsible for the loss of life 
on the "Slocum" surrendered to Coroner Berry. They 
were Captain John A. Pease, of the " Grand Republic," 
who is recognized as commodore of the Knickerbocker 
ileet, and Frank G. Dexter, a director in the company. 
Captain Pease went to the Coroner's ofi&ce with his 
sister, Mrs. Caroline A. Armstrong, of Brooklyn, who 
signed his bail bond for $5,000. Mr. Dexter gave his 
address as the Astor House and said he was a jeweller. 
He produced a receipt showing a deposit of $5,000 cash 
bail with the City Chamberlain. C. De Lacy Evans, 
another director, telegraphed from Rye Beach, N. H., 
that he would appear and furnish bail whenever he was 
wanted. Coroner Berry replied to appear forthwith. 
Frank A. Barnaby, president of the Knickerbocker Com- 
pany, telephoned to Coroner Berry that he understood 
Robert K. Story was in the North Woods and expected 
to get in communication with him within a few days. 



OFRCIAL LIST 

OF THE 

NAMES, AGES AND RESIDENCES 

OP 

Victims of the Steamboat Horror 

CAUSED BY THE 

BURNING OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



We are able to present the report of Max F. Sclimitt- 

berger, Inspector of the F'irst District of New York. It 

contains a very careful compilation of the names of 

the dead and injured by the dreadful calamity. The 

report is as follows : 

In compliance with orders to make a careful and 

thorough investigation, and to ascertain the number of 

persons " dead," " missing," " injured," or " uninjured," 

who were in the General Slocum disaster, on June 15th, 

1904, I respectfully report that a careful and thorough 

■ investigation has been made, and the results obtained, 

/ carefully collated and revised, and the accompanying lists 

of persons, classified as "dead," "missing," "injured," 

or " uninjured," may be considered as absolutely correct 

and reliable, so far as the information contained therein 

could be obtained and verified up to this date. 

N.Y.22 337 



338 LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 

For the purpose of this inquiry a force of ten 
clerical men reported to me at lo A. M., June 22d, 1904, 
and at 8 A. m., June 23d, 1904, one hundred patrolmen 
who were able to speak the German language also re- 
ported to me at the Fifteenth Precinct Station House for 
that duty, and where the work has been conducted with- 
out intermission, and with the least possible delay, under 
my personal supervision. After recording every name 
which appeared in the public press and in the published 
list of " dead," "missing," "injured," or "uninjured," 
or in the news columns, or obituary notices, in any 
newspapers published in the city of New York, or re- 
ported by the friends or relatives, or appearing to be in 
any manner connected with the disaster, these names, by 
a system of comparison and elimination, were finally 
reduced to one consolidated list, and the individual in- 
quiries were thereupon instituted in each case, and 
recorded on the proper blanks furnished for that pur- 
pose. 

The patrolmen detailed for that purpose were in- 
structed to be most minute and exact, in obtaining the 
fullest information, and I believe their work has been 
faithfully and intelligently performed. 

I would further state, that the list of persons classi- 
fied as " missing," and containing the names of ninety- 
three persons, and who are positively known to have 
been on board the steamer General Slocum, at the time of 
the disaster, have not returned to their homes, and can 
be considered as having also perished, and which number 
added to the list of names, classified as " dead," would 
increase the list of "dead" to a total of 1031 persons, 
and which would probably represent the entire actual 
mortality of the disaster. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 339 

RECAPITULATION. 

Total number of persons dead 938 

Total number of persons missing 93 

Total number of persons injured 179 

Total number of persons uninjured 236 

Total number of children made orphans .... 15 

Total number of persons who have been reported 

in the newspapers and from other sources, as 

having been in the disaster, and which were 

ascertained by the police not to have been on 

board, and who are alive 33 

Number of unidentified bodies buried by the city : 

Number drowned 42 

Number burned 38 

Total 80 

Annexed please find detailed list, giving the name, 
age, and residence of every person, either " dead," 
"missing," " injured," or " uninjured." 

In addition to the instructions already given, the 
patrolmen were also instructed to make inquiries of the 
survivors as to the knowledge in their possession, having 
a tendency to aid the District Attorney in the prosecution 
of persons responsible for the disaster, and this has 
resulted in the obtaining of some information, and which 
statements are herewith annexed, and copies of which 
have been forwarded to the District Attorney. 

I would further state, that the inquiries also extended 
to the ascertaining of how many children have been made 
orphans, by the loss of their parents by the disaster, and 
all cases of persons in distress and in need of aid and 
assistance, to enable them to bury the dead, and to assist 
them in their immediate wants, and which cases are also 
herewith annexed, and a copy of the same having been 



340 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



forwarded to the Citizens Relief Committee, in order that 
immediate relief may be given. 

I wonld also further state that all the photographs 
of unidentified bodies taken at the Morgue, by your 
order, and transmitted to me from your office, have been 
placed on exhibition at the Fifteenth Precinct Station 
House, and the friends and relatives of missing persons 
have been invited to inspect these photographs, and 
already seven identifications have been made from these 

photographs. 

Also, the description of all unidentified bodies, trans- 
mitted to me from your office, are being compared with 
the descriptions obtained by the police officers from friends 
and relatives of missing persons, and recorded by these 
officers on the Department "Missing Person Blanks," 
for the purpose of establishing the identity of such iden- 
tified bodies. The blanks containing the description of 
all persons missing are herewith respectfully transmitted, 
together with the blanks especially prepared for the 
investigation, and properly filled out and signed by the 
officers detailed to make the inquiry in each case. 
Respectfully, 




Inspector First District, New York. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



341 



MISSING. 

[Where the city is not named New York is understood.] 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Ambrust.Edna 6. ..166 E. 10th St. 

Ausel, Eugene 6. ..103 E. •Ith St. 

Abrams, Isaac 25. ..166 Ave. C. 

Bahr, Louisa 82. ..424 E. 9th St. 

Barth.Mary 6. ..87 Ave. A. 

Bock, Grace 4...Marcy Ave., cor, 

S. 1st St., Brooklyn, 

Boenhardt, Ella 12...S22 E. loth St. 

Burflend, Kate 24. ..100 W. 106 St. 

Brauer, Jeanette 5... 107 E. 84th St. 

Baudeow, George 3. ..84 7th St. 

Becker, Mary G1....1157 Lex Ave. 

Becker, Lilly 27....1157 Lex Ave. 

Cohn, Minnie 28. ..108 E. 4th St. 

Clug, Carolina 54....468 8th Ave. 



Delhi, Catherine 3. 

Druse, Henry 7. 

DeLuccla, Nicholas 4. 

Drews, Henry 7. 

Diettrlch, George 10.. 



.209 E. 5th St. 
.54 E. 4th St. 
..54 E. 7th St. 
.54 E. 4th St. 
.96 Greenwich St. 



Erhardt, Clara „ 2....151 E.4th St, 



Fettig, Elsie 2., 

Eisher, Emma 80.. 

Fittig, Mrs. Peter 52.. 

Fleischer, Henry 15. 

Frey, Frederick 1., 

Flngeragle, Katie 86.. 

Flnglenagle, Clara 7.. 

Flnglenagle, \Vm 5.. 

Flnglenagle, Mary 10.. 

GroveUl, Fritz 12.. 

Grissler, .\nna ;i5.. 

Greissler, LUlie 7.. 

Goetz, Albert 2.. 

Grews, Barbara 36. 

GeueuwaUl, Emily .55. 

Grunnlng, Helen 10 mo.. 

(iardner, Mrs. Chas 34.. 

Galenski, Flora 36.. 

Grauer, Louis 22.. 

Geissler, Ella 5.. 



.120 2d Ave. 
..103 1st Ave. 
.120 2d Ave. 
.322 E. 13th St. 
.84 7th St. 
.439 6th St. 
.439 E. 6th St. 
.439 E. 6th St. 
.4.39 E. 6th St. 

..56 E. 7tli. 

.439 K. 6tb St. 

.439 E. 6th St. 

.80 1st Ave. 

..526 E. 6tli St. 

.257 Ave. B. 

.45 E. 7th St. 

.748 Wtcbester av 

..54 E. 7th St. 

.100 University pi. 

.439 6th St. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Harris, Silver 16.. .242 E.5th St. 

Hesterberg, Mrs. B — ....419E. 5th St. 

Hansen, Elizabeth 67. ..04 7th St. 

Hansel, Eugene 6... 103 E. 4th St. 

Heinz, Dina 10....97 Ave A. 

Hlavacek, Annie — .... 

Just, Jos 6. ..105 E. 8th St. 

Just, Margaret 1...105 E.8th St. 

Just, Amelia .38... 105 E. 8th St. 



Koster, Meta 6. ..343 Rivington St. 

Koster, Anna 9. ..343 Rivington St. 

Kirschner, John 67. ..185 Russell S.,B'n. 

Liebrnow, Helen 6...133E. 125th St. 



Marshall, Daniel 14. 

MuUer, Elizabeth 6 mo. 

Moller, Fred 2. 

Mundle, Lillian 38. 

Molito, Jos 6 mo. 

Muller, Annie 6 mo. 

Motzer 4. 

Miller, Mary 7 mo. 



.127 First Ave. 
.406 E. 6th St. 
.998 Ave. A. 
..11 7th St. 
..Midland Ave. 
Yonkers, N. Y. 
.406 E. 6th St. 
.405 E. 6th St. 
.41 First Ave. 



Nieduhr, Mamie 7. ..23 Ave. B 

Oellrich, Minnie 4 

Oellrich, Lizzie 3. 



Ottlnger, Andrew 7. 

Ottinger, Arthur 5. 

Oellrich, Fred 6. 



.611 Marcy Ave.^ 

Brooklyn. 
.611 Marcy Ave., 

Brooklyn. 
91 7th St. 
91 7th St. 

611 Marcy Ave,, 
Brooklyn. 



Prawd, Slkl Johanna 1...85 E. 8d St. 



Hensler, Amelia 18.. ..154 1st Ave. 

Hlnkl, Llllie 8....227 K. 7th St. 

Hauseu, Margaret 70 . 64 E. 7th St. 



Roth, Jos 13., 

Relss, Annie 2., 

Stlehl, Lillle 16.. 

Schiu idling, Mary 55., 

Smith, Beatrice 2 mo.. 

Schiller, Geo 8 mo.. 

Schmidt Annie !J0.. 



.3tt5 5th St. 
.70 First Ave, 

.55 First Ave. 
.119 E. 7lh St. 
.920 E. 1.35th St. 
.45 First Ave. 
.180 Ave. B. 



342 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Sackman, Margaret 9. ..341 Rivington St. 

Schuman, Annie 5. ..113 St. Marks PI- 

Schoefllng, Elsie 3. ..189 Third Ave. 

Slick, Minnie 18.. .337 5th St. 

Schaefer, Katie 6...32213lh St. 

Schumaker, Edward 10. ..486 6th St. 

Tetaniore, Herbert 4...1'171 Bushwick 

Ave., Brooklyn, 
rhomas, Lydia 6. ..90 Ave. A. 



Namf. Age. Residence. 

Vetter, Charles 12. ..760 6th St. 

Vassner .Johanna 32. ..332 5th St. 

Weaver, Christina 11. ..304 E. 9th St. 

Won, Freda 38.. .283 Himrod St., 

Brooklyn. 
Webber, Frank 7. ..404 5th St. 

Zipsie, Sophie 17.. .335 E. 21st St. 

Zarges, Marie —...132 E. 93d St. 



DEAD. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Ambrust, Mrs. Kate 45.. . 166 E. 4th St, 

Armand, Lillian 14 mo. ..334 E. 6th St. 

Anger, Rosie 19. ..1365 3d Ave. 

Ansel, Alfred 4...10;^E. 4th St. 

Ansel, Louisa 28... 103 E. 4th St. 

Abenschein, Mary 34. ..325 E. 18th St. 

Alfeld, Anna 45. ..399 6th St. 

Alfeld, Tillle 16....&39 6th St. 

Ackerman, Barbara 30 .406 E. 5th St. 

Ackerman, Lena 16 mo....406 E. 5th St. 

Albers, Eva 17. ..628 K. 138 St. 

Addicks, John 15. ..49 Ave. A. 

Addicks, Martha 11. ..49 Ave. A. 

Anger, Charles A 52.. .357 E. 62d St. 

Anger, Mrs. xMinnle 29....357 E. 62d St. 

Abbeser, Amelia 36....128 E. 4th St. 

Abbesser, Henry 6. .. 128 E. 4th St. 

Albrecht,Salvena —...201 K. 10th St. 

Alnoldi, Ella 11..7;^ Ist Ave. 

Behrens, Alice 16. ..127 Garden St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 

Ballmer, Mary 36....12:^ 1st Ave. 

Ballmer, Joseph W 16.. .123 1st Ave. 

Ballmer, Augusta 8... 123 1st Ave. 

Burfiend, Uora 23. ..245 W. 27th St. 

Burflend, INIargaret 2. ..245 W. 27th St. 

Burfiend, Dora 2 mo. ..243 W. 27lh St. 

Birmingham, Cather'e..72...79 Mangin St. 

Baumann, Madelina J»0...526 6th St. 

Baumann, Margaret 6. ..526 6th St. 

Baumann, Otto 5...526 6th St. 

Beck, Christina 55. ..318 E. 9th St. 

Brown, MoUie 32. ..283 E. 5th St. 

Brown, Elsie 10. ..233 E. 5th St. 

Brown, Willie 6. ..233 E. 5th St. 

Brunning, John L 44. ..215 E. 12th St. 

Brunning, Annie E 43.. . 215 E. 12th St. 

Brunning, Madelina 12. ..215 E. 12th St. 

Bretz, Mary 28...;j04 E. 28lh St. 

Bretz, Eda 3. ..304 E. 28th St. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Bretz, Elsie 7 mo. ..304 E. 28th St. 

Brosewald, Mela 50. ..269 Monroe St. 

Benneke, Mary 30.. .420 E. 17th St. 

Belmken, Annie 13. ..344 E. 48th St. 

Buchkort, Anna 66.. .141 E. 3d St. 

Behrens, Henry 6. ..22 St. Mark's PI. 

Balser, Amelia 46.. .422 E. 8th St. 

Burflend, John 10 mo. ..100 W. 106 St. 

Boenhardt, Otto 14...322E. 13th St. 

Berg, Lena 45. ..158 Goerck St. 

Beruhardl, Anna 5...43 E. 2d St. 

Baiimle, Margaret 85...438 E. 6th St. 

Baumle, Annie 11...4:^3 E. 6th St. 

Behrendt, Clara 8...88 3dSt. 

Bauer, Caroline 42. ..31 Beekman P!. 

Boerger, Pauline 47...104 1st Ave. 

Boerger, Philip, Jr 9. ..104 1st Ave. 

Boerger, Pauline 5. ..104 1st Ave. 

Blohm, Margaret 18.. .18-20 Jackson St. 

Blohm, Dora 15...18-20 Jackson St. 

Blohm, Anna 28. ..573 Central Ave., 

Brooklyn. 

Bahr, Ida 13.. .424 E. 9th St. 

Bahr, Lillian 7...424 E. 9th St. 

Blusch, Kate 25. ..41 Ave. A. 

Barnhardi, Annie 5. ..614 E. 9th St. 

Bush, Hilda 8...82 W. 90th St. 

Beekman, Margaret 23. ..1894 3dAve. 

Beekman, Margarct...7ino...l894 3d Ave. 

Bensh, Mary 42.. .401 5th St. 

Bal.serm, Catherine 32.. .137 Ave. B. 

Bose, Anna 54. ..135 Ave. A. 

Bose, Emily 19. ..135 Ave. A. 

Boeger, Susan L 32.. "10 Putnam Ave., 

Brooklyn. 
Boeger, William 5. ..910 Putnam Ave., 

Brooklyn. 
P.oeger, Florence 3. ..910 Putnam Ave., 

Brooklyn. 

iJozeubardt, Emily 38. ..110 1st Ave. 

P.ozeuhardt, Lucile 11. ..110 Isl Ave. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



343 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Behrens, Alice 40.. .127 Garden St., 

Hoboken. 

Baumler, Annie J^.-.-lSS E. 6th St. 

Baumler, Chas 10...4i>3 E. 6th St. 

Baumler, Annie 12.. .433 E. 6th St. 

Bell, Agnus, 16...242 E. 5th St. 

Braun, Mollis 32...233 E. 5th St. 

Braun, Elsie 10. ..238 E. 5th St. 

Braun, Walter 6.. .233 E. 5th St. 

Boden, Ella 49.. .101 Clymer St., 

Brooklyn. 

Buschmiller, Annie 27.. .79 Cayler St., B'k. 

Berdholdt, Mrs. Fred 30.. .41 3d Ave. 

Brandello, Eliza, 29...84 7th St. 

Brandello, Louise 5...84 7thSt. 

Bentz, Arthur 18.. .333 5th St. 

Breda, Mamie 23.. .90 Ave. A. 

Breda, Minnie 29.. .90 Ave. A. 

Breda, Minnie 13 mo. .90 Ave. A. 

Breda, Thomas 9. ..90 Ave. A. 

Brower, Margaret L 33. ..107 E. 84th St. 

Becker, Theodore 2...1157Lexingt'n Av. 

Benning, Magdeline 12.. .72 W. 114th St. 

Buchmiller, Arthur —...79 Cayler St., Bk. 

Buchmiller, George 7.. .79 Cayler St., Bk. 

Brocks, Mary 13.. .51 Ave. A. 

Behrens, Augusta 52.. .127 Garden St., 

Hoboken. 

Breda, Minnie, 29.. .150 N. 9th St., Bk. 

Birmingham, Katie 55.. .79 Mangin St. 

Berhold, Augusta 30. ..1050 Prospect Av., 

Brooklyn. 
Bock, Louisa 69. ..69 Marcy Ave., 

Brooklyn. 

Brown, Alphonse 13...205 E.5th St. 

Bock, May 7. ..69 Marcy Av., Bk. 

Baist, Lillian 13.. .23 Ave. B. 

Baumler, Amelia 15.. .4:^3 E. 6th St. 

Brandt, Eva 34. ..410 E. 9th St. 

Curhs, Kate 27.. .70 1st Ave. 

Curbs. Frida 6. ..70 1st Ave. 

Curhs, Henry D 1... 70 1st Ave. 

Cahill, Annie M 22.. .316 B. 6th St. 

Clbllskl, Kate 18. ..91 Ave. B. 

Charlotte, May 50...275 Ave. D. 

Clow, Margaret 40...54 7th St. 

Cordes, Meta 52. ..417 E. 16lh St. 

Cordes, Henrietta 22. ..417 E. 16th St. 

Cordes, Fred 14. ..417 E. 16th St. 

Christ, Minnie 12. ..144 E. 7th St. 

Cohr8,Frieda 26. ..106 Ave. A. 

Duls, Pauline 51. ..103 Ave. A. 

Dauernheim, Minnie 26.. .103 Ave. A. 

Uerscb, Ellen 41. ..76 1st Ave. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Dersch, Elsie 18. ..76 1st Ave. 

Darenhelm, Minnie 26...1065 Jackson Ave. 

Brooklyn. 

Doering, Ida 84. ..12 State St. 

Doerlng, Gustav 9...12 State St. 

Uoerlng, Ida 11...12State St. 

Dangler, Arthur 4....123 7th St. 

Dunn, Julia 28. ..2112 3d Ave. 

Dunn, Arthur 4. ..2112 3d Ave. 

Dreher, Angelica 43. ..810 E. 25th St. 

Dreher, Catherine 11. ..310 E. 25th St. 

Dreher, Conrad 4. ..810 East 25th St. 

Dorhoffer, Frieda 13. ..121 Ave. A. 

Dorhoffer, Fritz 7. ..121 Ave. A. 

Diamond, May 6. ..79 Mangin St. 

Diamond, Frank 5. ..79 Mangin St. 

Dleckhoff, Catherine 42. ..121 4th Ave., B'k. 

Dieckhoff, Annie 17. ..121 4th Ave., B'k. 

Dleckhoff, Mary 15.. .121 4th Ave., B'k. 

Dieckhoff, William 4. ..121 4th Ave., B'k. 

Dleckhoff, Catherine 13. ..121 4th Ave., B'k. 

Dappert, Agnes 61. ..328 E. 6th St. 

Dappert, Mary 28.. .828 E. 6th St. 

Delttrlch, Adeline ;35...96 Greenwich St. 

Dlettrich, Alfred 9...96 Greenwich St. 

Dlettrlch, Herman 5. ..96 Greenwich St. 

Dlettrich, Emma 2. ..96 Greenwich .St. 

Diehl, Lizzie, 27. ..209 E. 5thSt. 

Diehl, Elsie 7. .. 209 E. 5th St. 

Dlehl, Kate 3. ..209 E. 5th St. 

Dornhelm, Mrs. A 50. ..41 3d Ave. 

Drewes, Frieda 28.. .54 E. 4th St. 

Drewes, Catherine 65.. .54 E. 4th St. 

Drewes, Millie 2.. ..54 E. 4th St. 

DeLuccia, Agnes 6...54 7thSt. 

DeLuccia, Frank 8 ..54 7tb St. 

Ebling, Emma 82. .77 1st Ave. 

Ebling, George 5.. .77 1st Ave. 

Ehrhart, Minnie 14. ..69 1st Ave. 

Ehrhart, Eliza 2. ..151 E. 4th St. 

Ehrhart, Pauline 31. ..151 E. 4th St. 

Esher, llosle 16.. .88 Ave. A. 

Echersdorfer, Charlotte..21...813 B. 18th St. 

Brdmann, IMargaret 86. ..346 E. 9th St. 

Brdmaun, Alma 11. ..846 B. 9th St. 

Elmer, Kate 44. ..84 Stockholm St., 

Brooklyn. 
Elmer, Carl 13.. .84 Stockholm St., 

Brooklyn. 
Elmer, George 11. ..84 Stockholm St., 

Brooklyn. 

Ems, Christina 01. ..184 W. Broadway. 

Bllar, Matilda 46. ..219 E. 18th St. 

Eilar, Elsie 16. ..219 E. 13th St. 

Eysel, Jennie 0...203 Ave. A. 



S44 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Engelnian, Louise 28...425 E. 12th St. 

Engelman, William 6.. .425 E. 12th St. 

Elk, Adellade 24...306E. 6th St. 

Elk, Frances 17 mo.. .306 E. 6th St. 

ElUg, Lizzie 6...433 5th St. 

Elllg, Margaret 4.. . 4.33 E. 5th St. 

Erklln, Theo 6.. .1030 Hudson St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 

Funk, Mlchaci 12.. .83 Ave. A. 

Flckbohm, Marie 40.. .91 Ave. D. 

Fickbohm, Earnest 12.. .91 Ave. D. 

Flckbohm, Marie 14. ..91 Ave. D. 

Foelsing, Amelia 34. ..1914 3d Ave. 

Foelsing, Elizabeth 14. ..1914 3d Ave. 

Foelsing, George 9. ..1914 3d Ave. 

Foelsing, Ferdinand 7...1914 3d Ave. 

Fischler, Herta 7...314 E. 9th St. 

Fischler, Erna 6. ..314 E. 9th St. 

Froellch, Mrs 23...,301 W. 96th St. 

Feldhaus, George 11. ..526 Sixth St. 

Folke, Annie .51...2.57 Ave. B. 

Folke, Dora 76...257Ave. B. 

Fisher, Edna 6...108 1st Ave. 

Fisher. Llllie 4.. .108 1st Ave. 

Feldhausen, Margaret 48.. .50 W. 8th St. 

Feldhausen, Nicholas 12.. .50 W. 8th St. 

Felske, Gusta 88...211 E. 5th St. 

Felske, Elizabeth 14. ..211 B. 5th St. 

Felske, Herman 8 mo. ..211 E. 5th St. 

Fritz, Elna 47... 1225 Park Ave. 

Frese, Annie 20.. .426 E. 15th St. 

PYeck, Charles 14...409 E. 5th St. 

Fittlg, Peter 48... 120 2d Ave. 

Feldhausen, George 42. ..50 W. 8th St. 

Feldhaus, George 11.. .949 E. 137th St. 

Felmeden, Lizzie 86.. .80 l.st Ave. 

Fresa, Anna 20.. .426 E. 15th St. 

Frey, Lillian 84...84 7th St. 

Fettig, Christina 83.. .120 2d Ave. 

Gross, Emma 43.. .90 1st Ave. 

Gross, Bruno 6.. .90 1st Ave. 

Grellka, Amelia 48.. .345 E. 15th St. 

Grelika, Olga 14...345 E. 15th St. 

Grellka, Agnes 10.. .345 E. 15th St. 

Greisel, Emma 3... 117 E. 2d St. 

Geissler, Louis 10...439 6th St. 

Gress, Lillian 10 mo. ..526 E. 6th St. 

Gress, George 8. ..526 E. 6th St. 

Goss, Mary 59. ..97 7th St. 

Goss, Gertrude 27. ..97 7th St. 

Gress, Otto 43. ..134 7th St. 

Gress, Eliza 41. ..134 7th St. 

Gress, Clara 13. ..134 7th St. 



Name. Age. Befidmce. 

Gress, Walter 12.. .134 7th St. 

Grafting, Lillian 28. ..998 Ave. A. 

German, P'rederica 39. ..315 E. 18th St. 

German, Catherine F 17. ..315 E. 18th St. 

German, Frederica F 15. ..315 E. 18th St. 

Grimm, Selraa *i...314p:. 9th St. 

Gillis, Charles 16...512 E. 5lh St. 

Ginis, George 13. ..512 E. 5th St. 

Gassman, Minnie 11. ..128 E. 4th St. 

Gassman, Frank 8.. .1218 E. 4th St. 

Gassman, Michael 6.. .128 E. 4th St. 

Goetz, Catherine 28.. .80 1st Ave. 

Gerstenderger, Richard..38...147 W. 82d St. 

Gerstenberger, Annie 39. .147 W. .S2d St. 

Gallagher, Veronice 34.. .424 E. 15th St. 

Gallagher, Walter 9. ..424 E. 15th St. 

Gallagher, Agnes 9 mo. ..424 E. 15th St. 

Gardner, Lizzie 24. ..748 Westches'.ei 

Ave. 

Grunnlng, Ella 29.. .45 E. 7th St. 

Grunning, Henry 5. ..45 E. 7th St. 

Gibbons, Margaret 13. ..225 E. 5th St. 

Gibbons, Ela, 11. ..225 E. 5th St. 

Geisser, Kate, 25. ..1225 Park Ave. 

Gerdes, Christina, 49.. .341 Rivington .St. 

Gerdes, Henrietta 47. ..341 Rivington St. 

Gruben, Emma, 40. ..402 E. 17th St. 

Grubeu, Caroline, 13.. .420 E. 17th St. 

Gerdes, Henry, 80...430 Kosciusko .S*. 

Gerdes, Mrs. Henry, 60. ..430 Kosciusko ot. 

Goettler, Caroline, 68. ..233 E. 5th St. 

Gade, Grace, 16...405 E. 5th St. 

Geisler, Ida, 19. ..201 Avenue A. 

Galenskl, Helen, 6. ..54 7th St. 

Galenski, Morris, 3. ..54 7th St. 

Goetz, Leona, 12. ..337 5th St. 

Grewe, Henry, 16. ..54 E. 7th St. 

Grewe, Frederick, 14. ..54 E. 7th St. 

Geissman, Lena, 16. ..114 E. 4th St. 

Grovald, Elsie, 10.. .56 E. 7th St. 

Goetz, Edward, 5. ..80 First Ave. 

Goetz, Albert, 3. ..80 First Ave. 

Goss, Mary, 59...27 Stanton St. 

Goss, Gertrude 27.. .27 Stanton St. 

Grawe, Henry 17. ..54 7th St. 

Grawe, Frederick, 14. ..54 7th St. 

Galewsky, Helen, 7. ..54 7th St. 

Galewsky, Morris 54 7th St. 

Greenwald, Richard, 5.. .257 Ave. B. 

Grunning, Charles, 3...45 7thSt. 

Hendkamp, John, 54. ..805 6th St. 

Hendkamp Margaret, ...11.. .805 6th St. 

Hendkamp, Frank, 8. ..8056th St. 

Hoffman, Celie, 36.. .116 Lake St. J. C. 

Hoffman, Raymond 5. ..116 LakeSt. J.C. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



345 



]\^ame. -Age. Residence. 

Hoffman, Edna, 8. ..116 Lake St. J. C. 

Hortnng, Minnie K, 24...402 8rd Ave. 

Ilessel, Minnie 56...801 E. 147St. 

Haag, KUa, 13.. .158 1st Ave. 

Haag, Kusianna, 49. ..158 1st Ave. 

Heuer, Dora, 39. ..129 Division St. 

Heuer, Mary, 17. ..129 Division St. 

Heuer, Dcra, 7. ..129 Division St. 

Heuer, Herman, 9. ..129 Division St. 

Heyriscb, Katie, 47. ..423 E. 16th St. 

Hoffman, Elizabeth, 5-5. ..170th St. & Wash- 
ington Ave. 
Hoffman, Mary, 29...170thSt. & Wash- 
ington Ave 

Hetterich, Lizzie, 30...420 B. 15th St. 

Hetterlch, Robert, 6. ..420 E. 15th St. 

Hetterich, Emile, 8. ..420 E. 15th St. 

Hauff, Matilda, 14. ..41 Ave. A. 

Haas, Hana, 46...64 E. 7th St. 

Hecke, Tessie 10. ..504 E. 15th St. 

Hirt, Mary, G4...611Columbus Av. 

lleggenbucher, Mary 33. ..2112 - 3rd Ave. 

Hirt, xMary, 63...82 W. 90th St. 

Hettinger, Lizzie, 26...127 1st Ave. 

Heagy, Barbara, 17. ..108 1st Ave. 

Herz, Minnie, 32. ..412 - 6th St. 

lleins, Frank, 11. ..397 E. 4th St. 

liiller, Christina, 08. ..404 E. 6th St, 

Hlller, Godfrey, 66. ..404 E. 6th St. 

Holier, Barbara, .50. ..338 E. 6th St. 

Hoag, William, 14. ..210 E. 14th St. 

Hoag, Wilmur, 12...210 E. 14th St. 

Hoag, Emina, 9. ..210 E. 14th St. 

Hoag, Susianna, 49. ..158 1st Ave. 

Hoag, Ella, 13...1581st Ave. 

Hell, George, 14...55 1st Ave. 

Hell, Emile 12...55 1st Ave. 

Hell, Fred, 6. ..55 1st Ave. 

Hartman, Mary, 45...309 E. 10th St. 

Heinz, Johanna, 44. ..97 Ave. A. 

Heinz, Louisa, 20. ..97 Ave. A. 

Heidkamper, Maggie,. . 11. ..49 Ave. A. 

Heckerl, Annie, 11. ..88 Ave. A. 

Heckert, Julia, 8 mo. -88 Ave. A. 

Hotz, George 5. ..319 5th St. 

Horway, Mrs. Anna, 28...313 E. 9th St. 

llorway, Karl, 1-313 E. 9th St. 

Horway, Delia, 6...313 E. 9th St. 

Heislon, Margaret, 3;3...181 Waverly PI. 

Heislon, George 3. ..181 Waverly PI. 

Hel, Adelade, 15. ..Boston Road and 

Pelham Pk, Bkn. 

Hensler, Gussie 11... 154 1st Ave. 

Heckman, William, 8. ..52^5 E. 12th St. 

Hartman, Margaret 15...309 V.. lUlh St. 

Hetteroch, Elizabeth, SO. ..420 E. VaU St. 



Name. Age. 

Hessel, Wilhelma, .63.. 

Hoffman, Ella, 14.. 

Hardekopf, Meta, 40.. 

Henry, Sadie, 12.. 

Hecken, Lucy, 41... 

Hecken, Charles, 18.. 

Hartung, Louise, 47.. 

Hartung, Clara, 10.. 

Hartung Francis, 13.. 

Hartung Amelia 13.. 

Hartung, Elsie, 6.. 

Heins, Anna, 29.. 

Hertzenberger, Mrs. H...37. 

Hermann, Catherine 60.. 

Hermann, Elsie 3. 

Hermann, Fred 13 mo.. 

Holder, Marie 79.. 

Hermann, Emily 35 

Hermann, George....l4 mo 

Hernberg, Arthur 9. 

Hernberg, George 6.. 

Hoffman, Sophia 51. 

Hoffman, Mrs. C 37. 

Hotz, Anna 37 

Hotz, Bertha 12 

Hoffman, Edna 2.. 

Heins Annie 40. 

Heins Annie 26. 

Heins, Ida H- 

Heins, Etta 10. 

Heins, Margaret 7. 

Heins, Henrietta 10. 

Hetterick, Adolph 8 mo. 

Hecklin, Katie 

Heckman, Lillian 6. 

Hauff, Tillie 14. 

Hertz, Minnie 32. 

Haas, Gertrude 13. 

Havermeyer, Emma 37 

Havermeyer, Willie 7 



Residence. 
.801 E. 147th St. 
.Astor Library. 
.843 Rivington St. 
.225 - 5th St. 
.169S. 2dSt.,Bklyii 
.169S. 2dSt.,Bklyn 
.842 E. 21st St. 
.342 E. 21st St. 
.342 E. 21st St. 
.842 B. 21st St. 
.842 E. 21st St. 
240 - 9th Ave. 
.22 St. Marks PI. 
..4;i7 5th St. 
..410 5th St. 
..410 5th St. 
.169 Ave. A. 
..410 5th St. 
. 410 5th St. 
..79 Colyer St.Bkln 
..79 Colyer St.Bkln 
73 2d St. 

336 N. Y.Ave.,J.C. 
819 E. 5th St. 
..819 E. 5th St. 
...836 N. Y.Ave.,J.C. 
.300 Front St. 
..800 Front St. 
.300 Front St. 
.300 Front St. 
..300 Front St. 
..300 Front St. 
..420 E. 15th St. 



..512 E. 12th St. 
...142 E. 3d St. 
...412 6th St. 
..64 7th St. 
...1499 First Ave. 
...1499 First Ave. 



Irvln, Fannie 83...2112 3d Ave. 

Iden, Henrietta 10...100E. 4th St. 

Iden, Minnie 18...100 E. 4th St. 

Ideu, Grace 5...100 E. 4th St. 

Irwin, Julia 24...2112 3d Ave. 

Hmar, Fritz 47... 1225 Park Ave. 

Jolmck, Bertha 57...314 E. 9th St. 

Just, Amelia 13...405 E. 8th St. 

Just, Etelka 12...405 E. 8th St. 

Just, Leontine 10.. .405 E. 8lh St. 

Kreckler, Margaret 33.. .2.57 Ave. A. 

Krautwrst, Annie 14...114 K. 4th St. 

Kolb, \ulenllue 58.. .743 E. 201st St. 



346 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Kolb, Magdallne 72...743 E. 201st St. 

Klein, Tlena 73.. .31 Ave. A. 

Klein, Tillie 10.. .31 Ave. A. 

Klein, Telna 40. ..31 Ave. A. 

Klein, Julius 6....31 Ave. A. 

Krafft, Louisa 30. ..145 E. 4th St. 

Kessler, Babette 40.. .203 E. 7th St. 

Kessler, Augustus 13. ..203 E. 7th St. 

Kohler, Henry A 40. ..315 E. 13lh St. 

Kohler, Mary 38.. .815 E. 13lh St. 

Kohler, Heury A., Jr 12.. .315 E. 13th St. 

Kopf, Lizzie 32.. .337 E. 9th St. 

Kopf, Emell 10.. .337 E. 9th St. 

Kopf, Francis 8. ..337 E. 9th St. 

Kopf, Theodore 5.. .3:57 E. 9th St. 

Kopf, EUe 2. ..337 K. 9th St. 

Kalb, Gussle 22...517 E. 5th St. 

Klatthaer, Catherine 56.. .506 E. 5th St. 

Klatthaer, George 14...506 E. 5th St. 

Klennan, Meta 57.. .1391 Wash. Ave. 

Kara, Barbara 60.. .314 E. 6th St. 

Klein, Emma 25.. .314 E. 6th St. 

Klein, Emily 9. .. 814 E. 6th St. 

Klenck, Bertha 40. ..113 St. Mark's PI. 

Klenck, William 20.. .113 St. Mark's PI. 

Klenck, Charles 7. ..113 St. Mark's PI. 

Kosel, Lillian 5...266 Ave. A. 

Koster, Margaret 46.. .343 Rivlngton St. 

King, Catherine 46. ..314 E. 46th St. 

Karl, Barbara 60. ..814 E. 46th St. 

Kleinhenz, Barbara 14. ..190 Ave. A. 

Klelnheuz, Liua 11. ..196 Ave. A. 

Kiessel Lillian 5.. .266 Ave. A. 

Klein, John 17.. .391 E. 3d St. 

Kawezymskix, Teofll 15.. .196 3d Ave. 

Klamme, Meta 24. ..1391 Washington 

Avenue. 
Klamme, May 1...1391 Washington 

Avenue. 
Klob, Valentine 68.. .743 Summer St., 

Bronx. 
Klob, Magdalena 72.. .743 Summer St., 

Bronx. 

Kalk, Augusta 21. ..84 7th St. 

Klenneu, Ethel 1...1391 Washington 

Avenue. 
Klrsher, Catherine 61. ..185 Russell St., 

Brooklyn. 
Klrscher, Margaret 83. ..185 Russell St., 

Brooklyn. 
Klrcher, Elsie 7. ..185 Russell St., 

Brooklyn. 
Klrsher, Karl 8. ..185 Russell St., 

Brooklyn. 
Klennen, Meta 5e...l391 Washington 

Avenue. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Klennen, Ethel 11 mo...l391 Washington 

Avenue. 

Keppler, Louis 17. ..192 First Ave. 

Keisel, Millie 6. ..266 Ave. A. 

Klenck, Minnie 19. ..438 6th St, 

Klenck, Minnie 19. .ASS 6th St. 

Klein, Mrs. Diana 72. ..29 Ave. A. 

Klein, Manol 13.. .313 Miller Aye.. 

Brooklyn. 

Kunze, Gussie 20...417 E. 16th St. 

Kleseh, Katie 6...800 E. llthSt. 

Keppeler, Irene 12. ..192 First Ave. 

Krlegler, Margaret 24...257 Ave, B. 

Krelgler, Fred 10...257 Ave. B. 

Kreigler, Annie 7. ..257 Ave. B. 

Link, Edward 12. ..76 Ave. A. 

Link, Lottie 8...76Ave. A. 

Lurln, Xena 17. ..11 E. 4th St. 

Ludemann, Johanna 45. ..4 Smith S L 

White Plains 
Lutgens, Katie 46.. .101 Clymer St.. 

Brooklyn. 
Lutgems, .Maggie 18. ..101 Clymer St.. 

Brooklyn. 

Ludwlg, George 14. ..413 E. 17th St. 

Lang, Amelia 15. ..154 E. Broadway. 

Lullman, Carrie 24. ..100 University pi, 

Lambeck, Ernest 9. .. 427 E. 9th St. 

Lambeck, Henry 6. .. 427 E. 9th St. 

Lambeck, Albert 3. ..427 E. 9th St. 

Luderer, Herman 18...312 E. 14th St. 

Lane, Gustav 17.. .227 E. 11th St. 

Lane, George 14. ..227 E. 11th St. 

Lahn, Dora 25. ..1000 Union Avt. 

Lahn, Clara 20. ..1000 Union Ave, 

Leffler, Catherine 41. ..9 E. 8d St. 

Leffler, Louise 9. ..9 E. 3d St. 

Lieport,Chas 12.. . 412 E. 6th St. 

Lamm, Amelia 40.. .645 E. 17th St. 

Lamm, Frank 15. ..645 E. 17th St. 

Lamm, Lillian 7...645 E. 17th St. 

Lucas, Robert —...540 W. 39th St. 

Libeuow, Anna 3...183 E. 125th St. 

Llcome, Minnie 19.. .83 7th St. 

Llebnow, Martha 29.. .404 E. 5th St. 

Meinhardt, Walde 15...146 E. 4th St. 

Molke, Lizzie 10.. .125 First Ave. 

Mammelkamps, Llzzle..44...130 E. 4th St. 
MammeIkamps,Stella....l2...130 E. 4th St. 

Michael, Margarette 41... 624 E. 12th St. 

Michael, Willie 14...624 E. 12th St. 

MoUer, Valesca 27.. .97 2d Ave. 

Moller, Edgar 3...97 2d Ave. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



34T 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Muller, Annie 24. ..406 E.6th St. 

Muller, Hernilue 37. ..368 Bowery. 

Muller, Rose 14. ..868 Bowery. 

Muller, Edward 11. ..868 Bowery. 

MuUei, Helen 8. ..868 Bowery. 

Muller, Irene 4. ..868 Bowery. 

Mack, Annie 2*2.. .401 E. 10th St. 

Mahlstadt, Martin H 22...629 E. 146th St. 

Mecke, Tessle 9. .. 504 E. 16th St. 

Miller, Flora 26.. .314 E. 46th St. 

Miller, Florence 28. ..28 W. 97th St. 

IMuller, Annie .87. ..41 First Ave. 

Muller, Annie 13. ..41 First Ave. 

Muller, Henry 8. ..41 First Ave. 

Meininger, Lizzie 29. ..191 p:. 3d St. 

Meininger, Harry 19 mo... 191 E. 3d St. 

Meyer, France 42. ..134 Hobart Ave., 

Bayonne N. J. 

McCarthy, Jeremiah 9. ..134 Hobart Ave., 

Bayonne, N. J_ 

Msyer, Lizzie 39. ..88 Ave A. 

Meyer, Edward 10.. 88 Ave A. 

Meyer, Kate 7.. .88 Ave A. 

Meinhardt, Walberger....87...146 E. 4th St. 

Meinhardt, Rudolph 14. ..146 E. 4th St. 

Meyer, Louisa 39. ..430 E. 17th St. 

Meyer, Elsl 9...430 E. 17th St. 

Motzer, Annie 38.. .404 E. 6th St. 

Moller, Henry 13...20 St. Mark's PI. 

Moller, Martha 37. ..20 St. Mark's PI. 

McLoughlin, Michael 12. ..69 First Ave. 

Morris, Kate l-)...69 First Ave. 

Muth, Annie 62. ..1254 Lex. Ave. 

Muth, Kate 36. ..1254 Lex. Ave. 

Muth, Lizzie 11. ..1254 Lex. Ave. 

Muth, Tennie 8.. .12,54 Lex. Ave. 

Muth, Katie 5. ..1254 Lex. Ave. 

Mescke, Betty 51. ..508 Robblns Ave. 

Alescke, Anna M 16. ..508 Robbius Ave. 

Manheiiner, Mamie 36. ..86 7th St. 

JManheinier, Walter II. ..86 7th St. 

Meyer, Meta 59. ..381 Madison St. 

Meyer, Lizzie 20. ..381 Madison St. 

Miller, Annie 21...12;i7th St. 

Mattes, Lizzie 21. ..87 Ave. A. 

Mollter, Margarette 36...Midland& Jerome 

Avs.Mt. Vernon 
Mollter, Eva 8...MIdlandJcJerome 

Avs.Mt. Vernon 
Mollter, Carl 5...Mldland&Jerome 

Avs.Mt. Vernon 

Maurer, Matilda 14. ..421 E. 9th St. 

Maurer, (jeorge .53.. .421 E. 9th St. 

Maurer, Clara 12.. .421 K. 9th St. 

Mettler, Albert n...3;i8 5lh St. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Mettler, Robert 10...8885th St. 

Mettler, Elsie 15. ..338 5th St. 

Mettler, Fred 8...888 E. 5th St. 

Muller, Annie 82. ..998 Ave. A. 

Muller, Henry 1...998 Ave. A. 

Mai, Charlotte 50.. .601 E. 1st St. 

Meinhardt, Ruda 19.. .146 E. 4th St. 

Meyer, George 12...430 B. 17th St. 

McGrane. Michael 48...2161 8th Ave. 

Marshall, Henry 11. ..121 1st Ave. 

ISIarcellis, Matilda 13. ..894 6th Ave., Bku. 

Mundle, Arthur 8...117thSt. 

Michael, Caroline 12. ..171 Ave. A. 

Miller, Jacob 4 mos...l23 7th St. 

Meininger, Lizzie 29...6;^1 BergenAv.Bx, 

Meininger, Harry 2. ..681 BergenAv.Bx. 

Moeller, Catherine 4...45 2d Ave. 

Miller, Bernhardt 34. ..95 2d Ave. 

Moeller, Edward 5. ..20 St. Marks PI. 

Miller, Mary 29. ..95 2d Ave. 

Moeller, Annie 406 E. 6th St. 

Mattes, Margarette 57. ..87 Ave. A. 

Norman, Anna 23...402 3d Ave. 

Noll, Kate 40. ..400 E. 5th St. 

Noll, Theodore 5. ..400 E. 5th St. 

Nelbuhr, Meta 88.. .23 Ave. B. 

Neibuhr, Lizzie 9. ..23 Ave. B. 

Ottinger, Kate 38. ..91 7th St. 

Ottinger, Emma 15.. .91 7th St. 

Ottinger, Charles 15...917th St. 

Oelrich, Anna 35.. .611 Marcy Ave., 

Brooklyn. 
Oelrich, Helen 9 mo. ..611 Marcy Ave., 

Brooklyn. 

Oehler, Anna M 54. ..510 6th St. 

Oehler Freda 14...510 6th St. 

Ohl, Emila 11. ..340 E. 9th St. 

OhI, Carl 9...840 E. 9th St. 

Osborne, Fannie 18...20thSt. Marks PI. 

Oelrich, Fred 6. ..611 Marcy Ave., 

Brooklyn. 
Oelrich, Minnie... 4. ..611 Marcy Ave. 

Brooklyn. 
Oelrich, Lizzie 3. ..611 Marcy Ave. 

Brooklyn. 
Osmers, Mildred 6...49 E. 88 St. 

Pfelfer, Ullle 18.. .987 Bedford Ave., 

Brooklyn. 

Pullman, William H 49. ..337 E. 18th St. 

Pienlng, Dora 57. ..45 E. 7th St. 

Potiebaum, Herman 52. ..61 St. Mark's PI, 

Pottebaum, Eliza 47...6I St. Mark's PI, 



348 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



Name. Agt 

Pottebaum, William 29. 

Probst, Katie 24. 

Port, Henry 15. 

Port, Paul C 12. 

Prawdzikl, Annie 15. 

Prawdziki, Henrietta 13. 

Prawdzikl, Gertrude 8 

Pauls, Elsie 21 

Pauls, Kate U 

Polnish, Olga 14 



:. Residence. 

..61 St. Mark's PI. 
..515 E. 12tli St. 
..88 4th St. 
..88 4th St. 
..85 E. .Sd St. 
..85 E. 3d St. 
..85 E. 3d St. 
..26 Ave. A. 
..26 Ave. A. 
..320 5th St. 



Ryan, Mamie 5...345 E. 15th St. 

Rosenberger, Mary 46. ..417 E. 16th St. 

Rosenberger, Lizzie 8. .. 417 E. 16th St. 

Reuling, Emma 24. ..424 E. 6th St. 

Roes, Adele 24...322McDonaghSt. 

Brooklyn. 

Routh, Ellen 20.. .310 E. Broadway. 

Rice, Catherine 74. ..40 Shepard Ave., 

Brooklyn. 

Rosensteln, .Sophia 21. ..127 1st Ave. 

Rosenagei, Annie 38.. .129 E. 4th St. 

Relchter, Lena 25.. .104 1st Ave. 

Relchter, Tina 11. ..104 1st Ave. 

Reichter, Lizzie 12.. .104 1st Ave. 

Relchter, Fred 10. ..104 1st Ave. 

Rheinfrank, John 75.. . 343 W. 71st St. 

Rhelnfrank, Catherlna..64...843 W. 71st St. 

Ringer, Clara 37...170 Ave. A. 

Ringer, Alfred 12...170 Ave. A. 

Rammelkamp, Augusta 44... 130 E. 4th St. 

Rammelkamp, Stella 18.. .180 E. 4th St. 

Rioter, Amelia 47...404 E. 6th St. 

Rlcter, Amelia 20.. .404 E. 6th St. 

Ricter, Lizzie 19...404 E. 6th St. 

Ricter, Annie 8...404E. 6th St. 

Ricter, Ernest 12.. .404 E. 6th St. 

Ricter, August 14. ..404 E. 6th St. 

Rothenberger, Annie 19. ..368 Bowery. 

Roberts, Clara 38. ..198 Guernsey St., 

Brooklyn. 
Roberts, Blanche 13. ..198 Guernsey St., 

Brooklj-n. 

Ruthlnger, Meta 89. ..47 St. Mark's PI. 

Ruthinger, Ernest 16. ..47 St. Mark's PI. 

Roeth, Helen 20.. .810 E. Broadway. 

Ramus, Frederick 60.. .420 17th St. 

Ramus, Irving 11. ..420 E. 17th St. 

Roth, Josephine 42. ..203 E.5th St. 

Roth, Caroline 17.. .203 E. 5th St. 

Rakowski, Manda 10...337 E. 5th St. 

Roese, Adelln 37. ..Sumner Ave. & 

McDonagh St., Brooklyn. 

Botbm&B, Bmii7 ...„34.,.48>^ 7th St. 



Name. Age 

Rothman, Thomas F.... 

Rothman, William 5.. 

Richter, Lena 34.. 

Richter, Lydia 12.. 

Richter, Christina 9.. 

Reiss, Rose 16.. 

Relss, Kate :«.. 

Reiss, Lizzie 7. 

Ramus, Frederick 16. 

Reitz, Tessie 

Reichenbach,HermauH 2. 



Roth, Josephine 52. 

Roth, Lena 17. 

Reuling, Gertrude 22. 

Schnude, Henry C 82. 

Schnude, Mrs. Henry. ...32.. 

Schrude, Grace 4. 

Schnude, Mildred 2., 

Schuman, Alfred 7. 

Sackman Margaret 40.. 

Sackman, Herman 7. 

Schwartz, Louisa 43., 

Schoenengut Gottleben.64. 

Soerichs, Lotie 36. 

Schuesler, Sophie 62. 

Stenger, Frances 88. 

Stenger, Rose 10. 

Shoefliug, Mary 85. 

Siegel, Sophia 24. 

Schaier Margarette 24.. 

Schaier, Julia 6 mo 

Smith, Mamie 18. 

Schmidt, Goettlieb 84 

Schmidt, Bertha 10. 

Schmidt, Emma 25 

Schmidt, Erna 5 mo 

Spring, Mrs. Augusta... .52 

Siercish, Mrs 38. 

Schumacher, Katie 14 

Stoehr, Sussie 30. 

Stoehr, Henry 5, 

Schwartz, Mrs. Charles..45 

Staeger, Anna, 13. 

Seller, Catherine 78. 

Stick, Lena 88. 

Sutman, Henrietta 28. 

Stelz, Bessie 18. 

Smith, Martha .28. 

Sohoett, Josephine 42, 

Schoett, Christina ,..,.19 



Residence. 
.483^ 7th St. 
.48>^7thSt. 

104 1st Ave. 

104 1st Ave. 

104 1st Ave. 
,.70 1st Ave. 
..70 1st Ave. 
..70 1st Ave. 
..420 E. 17th St. 
..90 1st Ave. 
.241 Stockholm.- 

Brooklyn. 
..2a5E.5thSt. 
..203 E. 5th St. 
,.422 2d St. 



St 



St 



St. 



197 Qurnsey 

Brooklyn. 

.196 Gurnsey 

Brooklyn. 

.196 Gurnsey 
Brooklyn. 

.109 Gurnsey 
Brooklyn. 

.113 St. Marks I'l, 

341 Rivington St, 

.841 Rivington St 

.141 E. 3d St. 

.118 E. 3d St. 

.425 E. 18th St. 

.388 6th St. 

.88 E. 3d St. 

.88 E. 3d St. 

.189 3d Ave. 
...54 7th St. 
.237 E. 10th St. 
..237 E. 10th St. 

361 E. 10th St. 
..97 E. 4th St. 
..97 E. 4th St. 
..264 1st Ave. 
..264 1st Ave. 
..901st Ave. 
..425 E. 12th St. 
,..436 6th St. 
..840 E. 6th St. 
..340 E. 6th St. 
..144 E. 8d St. 
,..59 1st Ave. 
...107 B. 84th St. 
..837 5th St. 
,...104 1st Ave. 
...606 E. 15th St. 
,..316 E. 18th St. 
...98 E. 7th St. 
...98 E. 7th St, 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



349 



Name. -^c/e. Residence. 

Schoett, Carrie 10...98 E. 7th St. 

Schoett, Helen 5.-98 E. 7th St. 

Schmidt, Sophia y6...290 E. 2(1 St. 

Schmidt, Freda 7...290 E. 2d St. 

Schmidt, Charles 5. ..290 E. 2d St. 

Schneple, Carrie 15...54 Ave. A. 

Schneider, Katie 8...822 Stanhope St., 

Brooklyn. 

Slbelsky, Kale 18...S22 Freeman St., 

Greenpolnt. 

Stone, Mamie 43...m E. 4th St. 

Schuler, Frederick 19...15Stuyvesant St. 

Schuler, Charle-s l.5...15Stuyvesant St. 

Schrumpf, Lizzie 48...208 Ave. B. 

Schrumpf, John 16...208 Ave B. 

Schrumpf, William l.i...208 Ave. B. 

Smith, Eva 17- 119 K- 4th St. 

Schmidt, Emma 51...i;« E. 7th St. 

Smith, Anna 25...920 E. 156th St. 

Smith, Mildred 2...920 E. 156th St. 

Svoboda, Francis 11...170 E. 4th St. 

Svoboda, Mamie 8...170 E. 4th St. 

Schafer, E. Fannie 40...77 E. Houston St 

Schnitzerling, Eliza 86....123 Ave. A. 

Schmidt, Catherine 67....418 E. 9th St. 

Schmidt, Kate 40...418 E. 9th St. 

Schmidt, Arthur 14...418 E. 9th St. 

Schelken, Elsue 8....a:51 5th St. 

Schweikert, Catherine....61....216 E. 11th St. 

Sanders, Helen 13...416 E. 10th St. 

Schruner, Bertha 16....1401st Ave. 

Schruner, Lena I0....IIO 1st Ave. 

Schruner, Willie 9....140 1st Ave. 

Smith, Sophia 15....341 E. 25th St. 

Schneider, Tessie 14....901st Ave.. 

Schmidimg. xMiHie 22...119 E. 7th St. 

Schmldllng, George 18...119 E. 7th St. 

Schmldllng, Annie 15...119 E. 7th St. 

Suden, Margaret M...61Jackson St. 

Buden, Herman 4...61 Jackson St. 

Schultz, Dora 38..,112 E. 4th St. 

Schxtltz, Rudolph 14...112 E. 4th St. 

Schultz, Henry G 11.112 E. 4th St. 

Schnltzler, Christina 28...10 Gouveneur 1 . 

Schnitzler, Kate 5,..10 Gouveneur Pi. 

Seiferth, Henry 32...215 W. Zid St. 

Schneider, Eva 42...326 E. 6th St. 

Schneider, Eva H-326 E. 6th St. 

Stubrauch, Annie 19...303 6th St. 

Strlckroth, Annie 4.5...146 Essex St. 

Strlckroth. Charles 14...146 Essex St. 

Strlckroth. Elsie 9...146 Essex St. 

Strlckroth, Louis 5...146 Essex St. 

Smith, Margaret 14...383 Monroe St. 

Selgvart, Phoebe 16...225 E. 6th St.. 

Selgwart, Carrie 9...225 E. 5th St. 



Xame. ■A.ge. Residence. 

Steckman, Augusta 51. ..225 E. 5th St. 

Steckman, Annie 21. ..225 E. 5th St. 

Steckman, Hulda 17...225 E. 5th St. 

Steckman, Augusta 15. ..225 E. 5th St. 

Steckman, Louisa 10...225 E. 5th St. 

Schnude, William 61...426 E. 17th St. 

Schnude, Louise 58...426 E. 17th St. 

Shiettinger, Dora 18...734 E. 149th St. 

Shiettlnger, Freda 16...734 E. 149th St. 

Schultz, Emma 10...130 E. Fourth St. 

Schick, Minnie 21...430 E. 15th St. 

Smith, Annie 3...801 E. 147th St. 

Schelke, Elsie 8...»il E. 5th St. 

Steil, Adelaide l5...Bostou Rd., Br'x. 

Seelig, Anna -...Dundee Lk., N.J. 

Schreiner, Annie 6. ..140 1st Ave. 

Schneider, Dora 32...322 Stanhope St. 

Schultz, Dora 7...112 4th St. 

Schuman, Albert -...100 E. 8thSt. 

Stlehl, LlUie 16...551st Ave. 

Stoss, Edna 10...816 2d Ave. 

Stoss, Minnie 48...316 2d Ave. 



Tetamore, Sophia 26...1471 Bushwick 

Ave., Brooklyn. 

Trebing, Mary 6....223 E. 5th St. 

Trlmm, Mary 36....211 E. 5th St. 

Trimm, Hedwlg 11--211 E. 5th St. 

Trimm, Henrietta 9....211 E. 5th St. 

Trimm, George 11....211 E. 5th St. 

Turuipot, Freda 27....198 Guernsey St., 

Brooklyn. 
Turnipol, Frances A 4....198 Guernsey St., 

Brooklyn. 
Turnipot, Charlotte \%....m Guernsey St., 

Brooklyn. 
Thom Suden, Marga' te ..80....68 Jackson St. 
Thom Suden, Herman.... 4...68 Jackson St. 

Troell, Albert 18.-405 E. 5th St. 

Tetamore, Mrs. M 30...1471 Bushwick 

Ave., Brooklyn. 

Thormalen, Mrs 42... 100 E. 2d St. 

Thormalen, Elart 7..-100 E.2d St. 

Thormalen, Tillie 3....100 E. 2d St. 

Unger, Kate 54....99 Ave. A. 

unman, Lena 39....409 E. 5th St. 

Ullman, William 14....409 E. 5th St. 

Uhlftndorf, Selraa 45....93 3d Ave. 

IJhleudorf, Louise 8....93 3d Ave. 

Uehlln, Minnie 43....416 5th St. 

Uehlein, Otto 19....416 5th St. 

Ulrlch, Julia 15....58 Wlllett St. 

Vassar, John H....33 5lh St. 

Vaeth, Wm 9....107 E. 'flh SU 



350 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



Kamc. Age. Residence. 

Vetter, Mary 45....31 Beekman St. 

Vetter, JSIamie 20....730 6lh St. 

Vickhott; Wm ii5....196 2d Ave. 

Volkhart, Lizzie 42....4;J9 5tli St. 

VoUmer, Mary M 7....128 1st Ave. 

Veit, Lena 26....151 E, 9tli St., 

College Point. 
Veit, Rosa 15 mo 151 E. 9th St., 

College Point. 
Van Duser, Matilda i;!....171 E. 4th SI. 



Westo, Lethis 14. 

M'orkman Jennie, 21. 

Webber, Emily, 10. 

Wertenberger, Margr't,22 

Wertenberger, Lillie, 2 

Weideman, Caroline, .50. 

Weideman, Catharine, ...30., 

Wallace, Hose, 11 

Weiss, Caroline, 50. 

Weiss, Emily,.. .. 12. 

Weaver, Carrie, 9. 

Weaver, Fred, o'j. 

Weaver, Mamie, 7. 

Weaver, Ester 5. 

Weaver, Helen, 5. 

Whitman Anna, CO. 

Ward, Walter E 27. 

Wernz, Anna, 21. 

Wunner, Caroline, 4(5 

Wunner, Lillian, 19 

Wlereiter, Marie, S3. 

Walter, Lizzie, tJ3 

Wermstich, Albert, 39 



C. 



..394 E. 5th St. 
..116 Lake St., J 
.404 E. 5th St. 
..55 1st Ave. 
...55 1st Ave. 
..79 E. Houston St 
.79 E. Houston St 
..214 E. 11th St, 
..216 E. 11th St. 
..216 E. 11th Si. 
.304 E. 9th St. 
.304 E. 9th St. 
.304 E. 9th St. 
.304 E. 9th St. 
..304 E. 9th St. 
,.1271.st Ave. 
.Fort Lee, N. J. 
..426 E. 6th St. 
..524 6th St. 
.524 6lh St. 
.626 E. 12th St. 
.;336 E. 6th St. 
.413 E. 5th St. 



JSamc, Age. Residence, 

Wermstich, Barbara, 37. ..413 E. 5th St. 

Wermstich, Albert 5...413E.5th St. 

Weis, Louis, 21...532 E. 5th St. 

Weis, Tillie, 44...522 E. 5th St. 

Weis, Fred., 18...522 E. 5th St. 

Weis, John, Jr., 5 mo.. ..522 E. 5th St 

Weis, Amelia, 9. ..533 E. 5th St. 

Weis, Salome, 14. .. 533 E. 5th St. 

Weis, Jacob, 10. ..533 E. 5th St. 

Wolt, Freda, 20 mo. ..283 Himrod f-t. 

Brooklyn. 

Weiugarth, Ethel 6...409 E. 5th St. 

Wolf, Lena 64. ..1131 40thSt.Blkyn 

Woolmar, Catherine 56. ..2425 Jerome Ave. 

Woolmar, Louise 22. ..2425 Jerome Ave. 

Werner, Lena 11. ..800 E. 14th St. 

Wens, Louisa 39. ..421 E. 5th4t. 

Wenz, George 11. ..421 E. 5th St, 

Wenz, Louisa 9. .. 421 E. 5th St. 

Zundek, Chas 8. ..104 1st Ave. 

Zanch, Mary 28.. .1518 Webster Ave. 

Zanch Dora 60. ..1518 Webster Ave- 

Zimmerman, Augusta. ..15 ..196 2nd Ave, 

Zimmerman, Hugo 12. ..196 2nd Ave. 

Zetter, Mary 49. ..31 Beekmau Pi. 

Zipsie, Mary 17. ..339 E. 21st St. 

Ripsie, Louise 11. ..339 F.. 21st St.. 

Zipsie, Albert 9. -.339 E. 21st St. 

Zipsie, Ellen 4. .. 339 E. 21st St. 

Zahn, Bertha 22...69 Lst Ave. 

Zing, Eugene 10.. .114 E. 4th St. 

Zidler, Anna 25...27 Stanton St 

Zidler, Ruby 2....27 Stanton St. 



UNINJURED. 



Name. A'.ie. Residencr. 

Alt, Harry 13...Astor Library. 

Armand Staella 8. .. 334 E. 6th St. 

Ambrust, Florrle 9... 166 E. 4th St. 

Anibrust, Mamie 12.. .166 E. 4th St. 

Abesser, Emma 10.. .128 E. 4th St. 

Abesser, Katie 8. ..128 E. 4th St. 

Amann, Harry 13.. .77 Third Ave. 

Albrecht, Martha 9. ..201 K. 10th St. 

Behrens, Fritz 7. ..22 St. Mark's PI. 

Brunnlng, Grace JNl 14. ..215 E. 12th St. 

Rose, Henry 14. ..135 Ave. A. 

Berhens, Fred 8.. .134 E. 28th St. 

Broun, Peter 12. ..233 5th St. 

Bushong, Henrietta 24. ..1028 Hudson St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 
Behrendt, Annie 13. ..88 E. 3d St. 



Aame. Age. Residence. 

Baumle, Fred 11. ..483 E. 6th St. 

Bertraud, .\rthur 13. ..730 6th St. 

Burchbaum, Mrs, L 30. ..1028 Hudson St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 
Rorst, Lucy 15. ..15 2d Ave. 

Collins, Thomas 25. ..303 Van Brunt St. 

Brooklyn. 

Conkling. Frank 39...Catskill, N. V, 

Cabilaskiwlz, Mary 19. ..100 E. 4th St. 

Doeriug, Edna 6... 12 State St. 

Dangler, Hattie 29. ..123 E. 7th St. 

Drews, Henry 31. ..54 E. 4th St. 

DeLuccia, 31. ..54 E. 7th St. 

DeLuccia, Rose 12. ,.54 E. 7th St. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



351 



mme. ^^ge- Residence. 

Eugelmauu, Kdna 5. ..425 E. 12th St. 

Eell, Mr S7...99 1st HI. 

Eell, John L 1-1...99 1st Ht. 

Eell, Paul i;5...99 1st HI. 

i:iwarger, Lulu 12...77 8d Ave. 

Ellig, Com-ad 8...43a5th St. 

Erklin, otto, Mrs ;!0...10'!0 Hiidson HI., 

Hobokeu, N. J. 
Erkllu, Gertrude :;...K):iO Hudson St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 
Erklin, Stephen ...7 weeks... 10:iU Hudson St. 

Hoboken, N. J. 
Everett, Brandon 45...CatsklU, N. Y. 



Flekbohm, Fred 9.. 

Felske, Hattie 12.. 

Filskow, Tony 41.. 

Filskow, Meta 20. 

Frese, Albert 16.. 

Fulling, Matilda 28. 

Fulling, Edmund 1- 

FIngeruagle, Katie 12. 

E'elmeden, Fred 45 

Feruelsen, Emma 33. 

Ferneiseu, Henry G 10. 

Ferneisen, William F 8. 

Ferneisen, Marie 7. 



.91 Ave. L). 

.211 E. 5th St. 
.170 E. 4th St. 
..170 E. 4th St. 
.426 E. 15th St. 
..110 W. 129th St. 
..110 W. 129th St. 
,.439 E. 6th St. 
,..80 First Ave. 
..40 E. 7th St. 

.40 E. 7th St. 

,40 E. 7th St. 

.40 B. 7th St. 



Gamblicher, Harry 13.. 

Giesler, William 16.. 

Gallagher, Katie H- 

Gray, George 13.. 

Green wald. Albert 13.. 

Gibbons, Thomas 42.. 

Gibbons, Mary 40... 

Gibbons, Mary 15.., 

Gibbons, Frank 9.. 

Gibbons, Thomas Jr 7.. 

Gibbons, Catherine 4... 

Gross, Freda 21.. 

Gross, George 13.., 

Gross, Burt H- 

Grallng, LouLse 16.. 

Gringel, Kate 32. 

Galling, Louise 17. 

Gaffga, Edward .1 20. 

Grawe, Annie 45. 



Name. Age. 

Hener, Adolph 14.. 

Hardekopf, Henry 15. 

Hensler, Jacob 9. 

Heckcrt, Eva 32. 

Heckerl, Julia 8 mo 

Heckert. Annie 11 

Heckert, Maggie 9 

Heckert, Cecelia 6.. 

Haag, Aranka 20.. 

Hoffman, Fred 24. 

Heins, Bertha 46. 

Heins, George ,.15 

Heins, Theo 15 

Hencken, Lucy 15.. 

Hotz, William 8. 

Hotz, Fred 37. 

Heckeu, Lucy 15. 

Heil, Andrew 41. 

Hartman, Clara H- 

Hartung, Minnie 24. 

Hollhusen, John 58. 

Holthusen, Clara 25 

Hayden, Wilhelmiua 23 



Residence. 
129 Division St. 
.343 Riviugton St. 
,154 First Ave. 
.88 Ave. A. 
.88 Ave. A. 
.88 Ave. A. 
.88 \ve, A. 

88 Ave. A. 

1.58 First Ave. 
.73 2d St. 
..397 E. 4th St. 
..397 E. 4th St. 
..897 E. 4th St. 
..169 S. Second St. 

Brooklyn. 
...319 E. 5th SL 
...319 E. 5th St. 
...895 E. 4th St. 

,55 First Ave. 

.309 E. 11th St. 
..342 E. 21st St. 
,..138 Second Ave. 
...138 Second Ave. 
...138 Second Ave. 



..404 E. 5th St. 
..201 Ave. A. 
,..424 E. 15th St. 
..309 E. 14th St. 
..826 E. 14th St. 
..225 E. 5th St. 
..225 E. 5th St. 
..225 E. 5th St. 
..225 E. 5th St, 
..225 E. 5th St. 
..225 E. 5th St. 
..90 First Ave. 
..90 First Ave. 
..90 First Ave. 
...Nutley Ave., N.J. 
..489 5th St. 
..30 Hudson St., 
Hoboken, N. J. 
..72 Howard Ave. 

Brooklyn. 
..54 7th St. 



Iden, Henry A 19...100 4th St. 

Iden, Anna 12...100 4th St. 



Karle, Emelia 12 

Kaufman, Mildred 2. 

K; render, Marie 28. 

ICreuder, Anna 18.. 

Klinck, John 12.. 

Kiesel, Anna 25., 

Kiesel,Theo 27. 

Kuneth, Margaret 15.. 

Kassebaum, Henry 53. 



.32 



Hauser, William 49....817 Bowery. 

Hecken, Lucy, Jr 15....169 S. 2d.St.Bklyu 

Hartung, Harry 16....342 E.21,st. 

Herboldt, Annie 75....ia7 W. 103d St. 

Holder, Marie 4.3....169 Ave. A. 

Haufl', Agnes 11....41 Ave. A. 



Kelsch, Maggie 

Kelsch, Elizabeth. 

Klennan, Edmund 1. 

Kiesel, Edward 28, 

Klein, Tina 21 

Kolb, Albert 22 

Krekler, Uora H 

Krekler, Lizzie 2 

Kiefer, Louis 19. 

Kneuster, William 12. 

Koster, Charles 16. 

Kllngert, Tessie 7, 

Kelsch, George So- 

Kastner, Paul 13 

Krause, Sadie 17, 

Kaufman, Mildred 2. 

Keller, Frank 14 



,.56 7th St. 
.425 E. 12th St. 
.451 West End Ave. 
,.62 West 97th St. 
.113 St. Mark's PI. 
,.266 Ave. A. 
..266 Ave. A. 
.406 5th St. 
..28 Enfleld St., 

Brooklyn. 
..800 E. 14th St. 
..800 E. 14th St. 
..110 W. 129th St. 

266 Ave. A. 
..31 Ave. A. 
...748 E. 201st St. 
..257 Ave. B. 
..257 Ave. B. 

1592 2d Ave. 
..645 St. Mark's PI. 
..343 llivington St 
..431 E. 15th St. 
..800 E. 14th St. 
,..110 1st Ave. 
..158 1st Ave. 
..121 1st Ave. 
...116 Ave. A. 



352 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Kircher, Fred 9. .185 Russell St., 

Brooklyn. 

Klingert, Tessie 7...«1 E. ICtb 8t. 

Klein, Salome 11. ..191 K. ;;d ,st. 

Krause, Sadie 17...2()1 W. 111th 81. 

Lyman, Samuel 8. ..72 Ave. U. 

Luderer, Otto 18...318 K. 14th St. 

Ludwlg, Fred 11. ..418 E. 17th St. 

Languth, Martha 11. ..21) Cooper Square. 

Languth, Louisa 9...29 Cooper Square. 

Lamm, Geo 11. ..64.5 E. 17th St. 

Ludemann, Fred 17...N-4 Smith St.,. 

White Plains. 

Ludemau, John 16...N-4 Smith St., 

White Plains. 

Leimberger, Carrie 80.. .51 St. Mark's PI. 

Leimberger, Lena 2. ..51 St. Mark's PI. 

Link, Arthur 14. ..76 Ave. A. 

Lludemann, William 10... 110 Lynch St., 

Brooklyn. 
Libbert, Harris 46.. .412 6th St. 

Meirs, John '.)... 154 Hobart Ave., 

Bayonne, N. J. 

Maurer, Minnie 14. ..626 E. 12th St. 

Miller, Fred 26.. .28 W. 97th St. 

Muller, Geo 40.. .41 1st Ave. 

Muller, Ernest 7. ..41 1st Ave. 

Matzerath, Edward 13... 880 E. 6th St 

Moller, Fred 35.. .998 Ave. A. 

Mettler, Geo 2.. .338 E. 5th St. 

Moller, Grover 12.. .95 2d Ave. 

Moller, Walter 9...95 2d Ave. 

Melnhardt, Otto 8... 146 E. 4th St. 

Mueller, Louis 11. ..100 St. Mark's PI. 

Mueller, Herman 9. ..100 St. Mark's PI. 

Mueller, Minnie 7. ..100 St. Mark's PI- 

Mammelkampf, Gustav 6. ..130 E. 4th St. 

Marshall, Geo 16.. .127 1st Ave. 

Motzer, Louisa 9...405 6th St. 

Muth, Conrad 10.. .1254 Lex Ave. 

Muth, John 3... 1254 Lex Ave 

Mardoj, Annie 20...48E. 2d St. 

McCarthy, John 11. ..134 Hobart St., 

Bayonne, N. J. 

Olsen, Clara 17.. .110 NV 129th St. 

O'Neil, Daniel 24...140 Cherry St. 

Ohl, Elizabeth 36...840 B.9th St. 

Polnish, Paul 12.. .320 E. 5th St. 

Podzuweit, Gus 26...682 Warren St., 

Brooklyn. 

Prawdski, Frank 12.. .85 E. 3d St. 

Potar, Joe 17. ..17 Humboldt St., 

Brooklyn. 



Kame. Age. Besidence. 

Poter. Louis 28. ..75 E. 4th St. 

Port, Wilheimina 47.. .88 E. 4th St. 

Pllntin. James 22. ..Ill W.2eth St. 

Koes, John 9.. .222 McDonough 

St., Brooklyn. 

Raichenbach, Lena 28. ..241 Stockholm 

St., Brooklyn. 

Ruthinger, Elsie 15.. .47 St. Mark's PI. 

Ruthinger, Fred 10. .47 St. Mark's PI. 

Rosenagle, Lucy 13... 129 E. 4th St. 

Rosenagle, Grace 14. ..129 E. 4th St. 

Rumps, Annie 34. ..342 E. 9th St. 

Reuffer, Arthur F 14. ..109 First Ave. 

Sirichs, Charles 13... 425 E. Vith St. 

Schmidt, William 13...5 Cooper Sq. 

Schutte, Annie 40.. .41 First Ave. 

Schil'ier, Henry 11. ..41 First Ave. 

Strikroph Henry 16.. .146 E.s.sex St. 

Schintzerling, Fred 5... 123 Ave. A. 

Steckman, Herman 7. ..22.5 E. 5th St. 

Sackmau, Anna 14. ..841 Rivington St. 

Schumann, Emma 1...113 St. Mark's 1*1. 

Sobllinskl, Mary 20.. .100 E. 4th St. 

Schultz, Pauline 43.. .180 E. 4th St. 

Schneider, Fred 12.. .512 6th St. 

Strieker, Clara 23.. .315 E. 9th St. 

Strieker, Martha 4. ..315 E. 9th St. 

Schrimer, Wllhelme 45. ..140 First Ave. 

Schriner, Minnie 18... 140 First Ave. 

Schneider, August 34. ..322 Stanhope St, 

Brooklyn. 

Schneider, Augusta 8. ..822 Stanhope St., 

Brooklyn. 
Smith, Owen 14. ...30 Hudson, St., 

Hobokeu, N. J. 
Smith, Harry 10.. .30 Hudson St., 

Hobokeu, N. J. 
Smith, Hartley 7.. .30 Hudson St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 

Schaefer, Augusta 36...322 E. 13th St. 

Schaefer, Jos 36.. .322 E. 13th St. 

Schmidt, Gotlieb 40...97 E. 4th St. 

Schmidt, Louisa 4. ..69 First Ave. 

Smith, James 8. ..80 Hudson St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 
Smith, August 5. ..80 Hudson St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 
Smith, Henry 88. ..30 Hudson St. 

Hoboken, N. J. 

Schoefling, Edna 10.. .189 Third Ave. 

Schnaff, Fred „..15...645 E. 17th St. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



353 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Tiscbler, Jobu U...401 E. 5lh St. 

Turner, Mrs. Harvey 28. ..2649 8111 Ave. 

Trebling, William 12. ..223 K. 5th St. 

Ueblaiii, Kddie 17. ..410 K. 5tbSt. 

Vollberg, Bo.'scb 15...;j;!l E. 5tb St. 

Vetter.Kred 10... N. 4 Smltb St., 

Wbite Plains. 

Weaver, Edward 50...12tbSt.Troy,N.Y. 

Wurmstltcb, Arthur 13.. .418 E. 5th St. 

Won, Julius." 30...28;5 Hlmrod St., 

Brooklyn. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Weiss, Geo 15...12!S5 Third Ave. 

Woltr, Mamie 20...221 E. 88th St. 

Weis^-Xatle 24.. .532 5th St. 

Wels, Harry 12...532 5tb St. 

Weudelkeu, Lena 30...299 E. lOtb St. 

Wendelken, Klcbard 9...2i>9 E. 10th St. 

Wahl, Hermlnia 4... 137 Second Ave, 

Wabl Hedwig 11. ..137 Second Ave. 

Zlpeer, William 15...335 E. 21st St. 

Zauscb, Katie 25...1518 Webster Ave. 

Zausch, Mary 4...1518 Webster Ave. 

Znndel, Annie 32.. .104 First Ave. 

Zipsie, William 15. ..839 E. 2l8t St. 



INJURED. 



Navie. Age. 

Armond, Annie 27.. 

Anger, Katie 18.. 

Anger, Charles F 29.. 

Addicks, Ernest 6... 

Albrecbt, Joseph 52.. 

Addicks, Annie 8.. 

Boengardt, Albiu 48.. 

Balzer, Nicholas 56.. 

Bose, Anna 20.. 

Bock, Louisa 32.. 

Balser, Mary 57.. 

Bensh, Lulu 12.. 

Bebreudt, Maria 42.. 

Bopp, Dora Oo.. 

Bohmer, Anna 59.. 

Bobmer, Emlle 18.. 

Broswald, Matilda 20.. 

Becker, Amelia 20.. 

Becker, Clara 20.. 

Breedeu, Ellen 16.. 

Becker, Mary 2;).. 

Becker, 20.. 

Canfield, Henry 47.. 

Cordes, Charles F 18.. 

DorhoflTer, Barbara 42.. 

Dorhoffer, Mamie 9.. 

Dangler, Harry C. 

Dlehi, Josephine 11.. 

Dearing, Kdnii 5.. 

Delvintbal, Sophie 19.. 

Dornbofer, Margaret 42.. 

Dader, Kllza 40.. 

N.Y. 23 



Residence. 

334 tith St. 
1365 3d Ave. 
867 E.62dSt. 
49 Ave. A. 
,201 E. 10th St. 
.49 Ave A. 

.322 E. 13th St. 
.422 E. 8tb St. 
,135 Ave. A. 
.Marcy Ave., 

Brooklyu. 
,137 Ave. B. 
,401 5th St. 
.hS E. 3d St. 
.74 1st Ave. 

StiO E. 93d St. 
,306 E. 93d St. 
.269 Monroe St. 
.1157 Lex'gtou av. 

1157 Lex'gtou av. 
.;{8311thSt.Br'k'n. 
.1010 E. 178tbSt. 
.1010 E. 178th St. 

.421 10th Ave. 
.417 E. 10th St. 

.121 Ave. A. 
,121 Ave. A. 
12;^7tbSt. 
.209 E. 5th St. 
,12 State St. 
,381 Madison St. 
.121 Ave. A. 
.174 N. Y. Ave., 
Jersey City. 



Name. Age. 

Delvintbal, Mattie 45.. 

Dietz, Ilosie 15.. 



Residefiice. 
,381 Madison Bt. 
.438 6th St. 



Erklin, Stephen 7 wk...l030 Hudson St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 

.359 W. 47th St. 

1028 Hudson St., 
Hoboken, N, J. 

.433 5th St. 

,99 1st St. 



Engel, Lulu 21.. 

Erk'lin, Anna 32... 



Ellig, Mary 40., 

Ell, William 9.. 



Flanagan, Edward 26, 

Fickbohm, Fred 9. 

Freck, William 11. 

Freese, Ferdinand 50. 



Freese, Annie. 



.15. 



Freese, Meta 44.. 

Folke, Ludwig 41.. 

Freese, Aleta 48.., 

Gelsler, Lina 43.. 

Growe, Anna 54.. 

Grelsmaun, Christine 47.. 

(Jreenhagen, Ernest 14.. 

Gassman, Mrs. Mlchael..44.. 

Hubold, Margaret 76.. 

Hartung, Minnie 24.. 

Hiinnerman, Susie 54.. 

Haas, George C. F 50. 

Haas, Emma 30.. 

Haunerman, Caroline. ..56. 

Heyrish, Bennle 12. 

Hephman, Maurice 38. 

Hedekamp, Margaret.. ..50. 



..445 W. 28th St. 
.91 Ave. D. 
..409 E. 5th St. 
..Mangln and 

Houston Sts. 
..Mangln and 

Houston Sts. 
.509 E.Houston St. 
.257 Ave. B. 
.426 E. 15th St. 

.201 Ave. A. 
.54 E. 7th St. 
..114 E. 4th St. 

176 Lewis St. 

128 E. 4th St. 

.416 E. 5th St. 
.342 E. 21st St. 
.439 E. 5th St. 
.64 E. 7th St. 
.64 E. 7th St. 
.439 5th St. 
,.42:i E. 16th St. 
..640 6th St. 
,.805 6th St. 



354 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Heckert, Eva 32. ..88 Ave. A. 

Heinz, George 17. ..97 Ave. A. 

Heinz, Henry 12.. .97 Ave. A. 

Heil, George 13. ..Boston Rcl.& Pel- 
ham Parkway, 
Bronx. 

Jorden, Catherine 20.. .87 8d Ave. 

Jordan, Pauline 1.5.. ..37 .3d Ave. 

■Joseph, Margurlte 32.. .45 3d Ave. 

Kreuder, Lena 28...62 W.97th St. 

Kanftraan, Julia 18...42.5 E. 12th St. 

Kelsel, Edward 3. ..266 Ave. A. 

Klpp, Anna 17. ..1894 3d Ave. 

Klein, Edle H 15...31 Ave. A. 

Klein, Elsie 16. ..31 Ave. A. 

Klein, Lucy 4. ..31 Ave A. 

Klein, A nnie 22...331 E. 16th St. 

Klein, Harry 17. ..399 Miller Ave., 

Brooklyn. 

Kircher, Lizzie 37...185 RusselSt., Bk. 

Kircher, George 13. ..185 RusselSt., Bk. 

Kircher, Stacey 7. ..185 RusselSt., Bk. 

Klein, Annie 22...431 E. 15th St. 

Kauff'man, Julia 21. ..121 1st Ave. 

Kubera, William 15...375 E. 4th St. 

Klesel, Edward 3.. .266 Ave. A. 

Kassebaum, Nettie 30.. .196 Guernsey St., 

Brooklyn. 
Kassebaum, Catherine. ..52. ..190 Guernsej' St., 

Brooklyn. 

Kaffenberger, Katie 14. ..436 6th St. 

Kneustner, Mary 46. ..65 St. Mark's PI. 

Kneustner, Charles 17.. .65 St. Mark's PI. 

Klein, Hannah 32... 444 E. 15th St. 

Klingert, Tessie 7. ..444 E. 15th St. 

Klennan, Matilda 29.. .110 \V. 12yth St. 

Laubeck, Albertina 33. ..427 E. 9th St. 

Laubeck, Herman 14. ..427 E. 9th St. 

Laubeck, Dora 11. ..427 E. 9th St. 

Lemp, Charles 12.. .108 2d Ave. 

Lemp, Augusta 10.. .108 2d Ave. 

Lutz, Lusta 16...Damerst, N. J. 

Lutgens, August, Jr., 16. ..101 Clymer St., 

Brooklyn. 

Lutz, Gustav 16. ..140 2d Ave. 

Ludeman, Hannah 19.. .4 Smith St., 

White Plains. 
Lutgen, August 46. ..101 Clymer St.. 

Brooklyn. 

Llebenow, Paul 33. ..1.33 E. 125th St. 

Llebenow, Annie 33.. .133 E. 125th St. 

Licome, Fred 52.. . 83 E. 7th St. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Metier, Kate 32.. .338 E..5th St. 

Mettler, William 4. .. 3.38 E. 5th St. 

Moller, Arthur 6...95 2d Ave. 

Maurer, Margaret 47. ..421 E.9th St. 

Mutb, John 37...1254 Lex'ton Ave. 

Mastersou, William 18.. .62 od Ave. 

Muudle, Agnes 6.5.. .11 7th St. 

Mahlstadt, Annie R 32.. .629 E. 146th St. 

Miller, Simon 71. ..ill Norfolk St. 

Oellich, Henry 11. ..611 Marcey Ave., 

Brooklyn. 

Osmers, Mary 56... 402 E. 83rd St. 

Osmers, Otto 17. ..402 E. 8.3rd St. 

Pullman, Elsie 45. ..337 E. ISth St. 

Polar, Joseph 17.. .17 Humboldt St., 

Brooklyn. 

Perdelitz, Alvina 44. ..89 E. 10th St. 

Perdelitz, Carl 15. ..89 E. 10th St. 

Prawdzikel, Mary 36.. .85 E. Srd St. 

Roth, Louisa 16.. .1235 3rd Are. 

Rehand, Kate 47...121 Ave. A. 

Rubenklau, Freda 23 ElnerrtSt.,Bkn 

Ran, Wilhelmina 52.. .52 7th St. 

Reina, Kate 47. ..121 Ave. A. 

Schwartz, Amelia 19.. .141 E. Srd SI. 

Schwartz, Charles M 18.. .141 E. 3rd St. 

Schwartz, Anton 16.. .141 E. ord St. 

Schwartz, l^ewis 10.. .141 E. 3rd St. 

Schnltzerling, Annie 10.. .123 Ave. A. 

Schultz, Pauline 43. ..130 E. 9th St. 

Smith, Flora 39. ..1028 Hudson St., 

Hoboken, N. J. 

Strickhold, Henry 16.. .144 Essex St. 

Schmidt, Julia 13...69 First Ave. 

Schmidt, Francis 14. ..69 First Ave. 

Schick, Henry 3.. .430 E. 15th St. 

Schultz, Susan 18.. .414 E. 9th St. 

Smith, Phillplne 27. ..149 E. 4lh St. 

Schmidt, Fred 9... 138 7th St. 

Stuve, Margaret 65.. .49 Ave. A. 

Schumann, Mary 30.. .113 St. Mark's PI. 

Schrimer, William 44. ..140 First Ave. 

Sauer, William 14. ..142 E. 2nd St. 

Slrangfeld, Christiana ...40... 1349 Park Ave. 

Strangfeld, Augusta r2...1349 Park Ave. 

Schepp, Mary 15...433 E. 17th St. 

Steil, George C 12.. .Boston Road and 

Pelham Ave. 

Trebing, Margaret 41. ..223 E. 5th St. 

Turner, Julia 26...2649 8th Ave. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE GENERAL SLOCUM. 



355 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Turner, Mary 5. ..2649 8th Ave. 

Trobetz, Edward 18.. .122 Sixth St. 

Ulrlch, Sophie 70.. .413 W.llst. 

Veil, Kate 23... 405 K. 5th 8t. 

Veil, Emma 2.. . 405 E. 5th 81. 

Vassner, William 16. ..333 5th St. 

Von Schaicli, Wm. Capt.57...800 8th Ave. 

Wierk, Margaret 21. ..341 E. 5.5th St. 

Wlerli, Amelia 15.. .341 E. .55th St. 

Wesler, Lizzie ;!2...123 W. 100th St. 

Weber, Anuie 30.. .404 E. 5th St. 



Name. Age. Residence. 

Weber, Frank 31. ..404 E. 5th SI. 

Wytzka, Ida 14. ..404 E. 5th SI. 

Wesler, Lizzie 32. ..266 Ave. A. 

Weiss, Ida M 42.. .12*5 3d Ave. 

Weiss, Minnie 13... 2135 8d Ave. 

Weintraub, Karl. 19. ..170 Norfolk St. 

Weiss, Louis 3. ..5325th St. 

Walheln, Emily 13. ..82 7th St. 

Wolf, Margaret 59...307E.1.5thSl.,dead 

Welsser, Earnestlna 55. ..84 Stockholm St., 

Brooklyn. 

Zoenegg. Bertha 16. ..245 5th SI. 

Zlmmer, Andrew 17. ..13 E. 3d St. 

Zlpsle, Sophia 40.. .339 E. 21st St. 



SWEEPING INDICTMENT IN THE SLOCUM CASE. 

Ill order that all those who could in any way be held responsible 
for the General Slocnin di.saster might be brought to trial, the 
Federal grand jurv, on July 29th, returned true bills against Frank 
A. Barnaby, president of the Knickerbocker Steamboat Company ; 
E. J. Atkinson, secretary ; W. J. Dexter, treasurer; Captain William 
Pease, commodore of the company's fleet ; Captain William H. 
Van Schaick, who commanded the Slocum ; and United States 
Inspectors Henry Lundberg and W. J. Flemming. 

An effort was made on the part of counsel for the men indicted 
to have Judge Thomas, to whom the grand jury reported, set bail 
for the men charged with responsibility for the disaster, but this 
the Judge refused to do. 

Indictments against Captain Van Schaick and the two inspectors 
have been found under a section of the revised statutes, which reads : 

" Every captain, engineer, pilot or other person employed on any 
steamboat or vessel, by whose misconduct, negligence or inattention 
to his duties on such vessel the life of any person is destroyed, and 
every owner, inspector or other public officer, through whose fraud, 
connivance, mi.sconduct or violation of law the life of any person is 
destroyed, shall be decreed guilty of manslaughter, and upon con- 
viction thereof before any Circuit Court of the United States shall 
be sentenced to confinement at hard labor for a period of not more 
than ten years." 



BOOK 11. 

THE GREAT CHICAGO HORROR. 



INTRODUCTION. 

IT lias been said that disregard of human life is an Amer- 
ican characteristic. Visitors from foreign countries 
are amazed at our indifference to the safety of the public. 
We appear to take it for granted that a certain number of 
accidents are bound to happen, and that it is useless to 
attempt to prevent them, or take any precautions, except 
such as are convenient. 

There comes a smash-up on a railroad, scores of per- 
sons are hurled into eternity, and in a short time the ter- 
rible calamity is forgotten. Provisions made in other 
countries for the safety of travellers are not made here, or, 
if they are, not rigidly enforced. Compared with other 
nations, the charge has often been made that we hold hu- 
man life too cheap. 

The recklessness of which we speak is especially ap- 
parent in the construction and management of our places 
of amusement. To call many of them death-traps is but 
a mild statement of the case. One might think they were 
simply built and managed to endanger the lives of the 
public. What does the insane greed of managers care for 
the people's safety ? Theatres are built solely to make 
money, and the greater the number of persons that can 
be packed into them, the more money the managers can 
make. 
35(5 



INTRODUCTION. 35T 

Not only are the seats crowded together, but the nar 
row aisles add greatly to the difficulty of escaping, in casd 

of fire. 

Outrages of this description are constantly inflicted 
upon an innocent public. Theatres are advertised as fire- 
proof and perfectly safe. Safe, indeed ! The eagerness 
> of managers and owners for big audiences and enormous 
profits cause them to disregard the fatal risk, and suddenly 
the world is shocked by a horror like that at the Iroquois 
theatre of Chicago. 

This building was nothing more nor less than a fire- 
trap. What mockery to call that place fire-proof! Nar- 
row isles, fire escapes almost concealed, and doors which 
led to them fastened, scenery about the stage that was 
more inflamable than kindling wood, criminal carelessness 
in the management of the lights and electric appliances. 
These are some of the ghastly features that enter into this 
awful calamity. The very thought of that terrible scene 
is enough to sicken humanity. It makes the blood run 
cold and fires one's brain with righteous indignation. 

People say, " What a mysterious providence? Why 
does God permit such things to happen ?" They might 
better say, " Why does man transgress all natural laws, 
do the very things that ensure calamity, and then in their 
folly wonder that it comes ?" God did not turn the Iro- 
quois Theatre into a blazing furnace. Men did that, and 
the woe is on their heads. If you are going to have man 
at all, you must have him as a free agent. He can burn 
down a theatre if he likes, and if he disregards the means 
of safety, the theatre is liable to burn, and before heaven 
and earth he stands convicted of the appalling crime. 

Unhappily this does not assuage the overwhelming 
loss of life and sorrow. The bolt has fallen and the deed 



858 INTRODUCTION. 

is done. For years to come the shrieks of those six hun- 
dred victims will rend the air of the great city, and the 
emblems of death will flutter in the winds. It is the cli- 
max of fiery destruction, such as the world has never seen 
before. 

A building thronged with people, all bent on amuse- 
ment, all eager for merriment, all without a thought of 
danger, was swept by a fiery blast. Faces were blanched 
with terror ; there was a wild rush for the doors ; the 
means of egress were sadly inefficient ; a mad scramble 
for safety crazed the multitude; smoke and flame swept 
down upon hundreds of women and children, and in a 
moment, as it were, those who were in the full tide of en- 
joyment were writhing in the hot cauldron of flames. 
Suddenly the bells rang through the city and the alarm 
was given. It was too late. The fire-fiend hissed and 
cracked over his prey, and in his flaming jaws human life 
was of no more account than as if it were so much chafl'. 

The complete story of the dreadful calamity is told in 
the following pages with graphic power. The reader has 
the fiery spectacle before him in all its hideous colors. 
The great Metropolis of the West was turned into mourn- 
ing, and staggered under the sudden blow. 

Immediately in many cities throughout our country 
there was a rigid examination of places of amusement, 
many were ordered to provide greater means of exit, and 
others were entirel}^ closed, 

A fire, resulting in such terrible destruction of life, 
was a solemn warning that could not go unheeded. It is 
to be hoped that never again will such a ghastly disaster 
have to be recorded. 



CHICAGO'S APPALLING HORROR. 

CHAPTER XX. 

STORY OF THE GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 

nPHE Iroquois Theatre of Chicago was packed with a 
1 merry multitude. Men, womeu aud childreu were 
there for amusement and enjoyment. It was a holiday 
throng bent on pleasure. The entertainment was charm- 
ing the spectacle was splendid, and the attention of the 
multitude was riveted. Not one in the crowded place 
anticipated danger and death. 

At the height of the entertainment a flash of hre 
shot through the crowded auditorium. It increased with 
startling rapidity. Suddenly shrieks of terror rent the 
air and there was a wild rush to escape from the threat- 
ening fury of the storm of fire. Dumb terror was 
succeeded by mad efforts to flee from the impending 

holocaust. 

Women and children cried aloud with terrible alarm. 
Men fought like demons. The throng became a seething 
mass of human beings frantic to escape from an awful 
doom Smoke and flame filled the building, hundreds 
were trampled under foot, and in the fiery furnace more 
than six hundred men, women and children met a hor- 
rible death. 

No calamity of moc'.ern times can furnish a parallel 
to the sickening scenes of that fatal day. Chicago was 
stunned and horrified. The civilized world stood aghast at 
the fnghtfnl news of the direful disaster. Families were 



360 GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 

riveu in twain, friends and loved ones were parted forever, 
scenes of sorrow cast a pall over the great city, and it 
seemed to reel and stagger under the merciless blow. 

For generations to come the appalling story will be 
told and faces will grow pale and hearts will grieve with 
anguish. 

The details of the overwhelming disaster will be read 
with thrilling, tearful interest. 

PANIC-STRICKEN THRONG. 

The disaster, the most appalling of the character that 
ever has befallen Chicago, occurred in the middle of the 
matinee performance of " Mr. Blue Beard," with fully 
eighteen hundred people in the audience, a large propor- 
tion of them women, girls and little children. A calcium 
light on a stand six feet above the level of the stage 
exploded, and in a moment a little streak of flame had 
caught the tinsel of the stage settings, flooding everything 
back of the footlights in a wave of fire. 

Bddie Foy, the chief comedian of the company, stood 
out from the panic-stricken group on the stage to assure 
the audience that there was no danger. Even as he spoke 
the great asbestos curtain was let down, caught on one 
side and failed to work. 

In another instant smoke burst out from the top arch 
of the stage and from under the bottom of the curtain, 
and before a man or woman in the seats could rise the 
whole roof of the auditorium was in a blaze. Two gas 
tanks exploded in the flies on the east side of the theatre, 
and black, choking fumes beat down in a cloud of death 
from every wall. 

That was all. Fear, uncontrollable and terrible, 
reigned. Men and women fought like wild beasts, filled 



GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 361 

only witli the desire for self-preservation. Little babies 
slipped from their mothers' uplifted arms aud in an 
instant their lives were crushed under foot. Girls threw 
themselves from the balconies and lay crushed and dying 
till suffocation ended their miseries. 

Over one thousand people in the orchestra seats, with 
easy access to the doors, gradually made their way to 
safety, but most of them threw aside wraps, pocketbooks, 
liats— everything that seemed to burden them in their 
rush for life and the open air. In spite of the panic, in 
spite of the suffocation, nearly all of them were saved. 

UPPER FLOORS DEATH TRAPS. 

But in the balcony and the gallery the angel of 
destruction wrought his frightful work at will. The 
flame and smoke gathering on these upper floors caught 
the people before they realized the full extent of the 
danger. It seemed incredible that the little rush of fire 
could lap the walls so quickly and reach out after them 
like a stroke of lightning. 

Then, when the full meaning of the disaster came to 
them, they fought and battled with one another for safety 
—battled like stampeded animals, with the deadly smoke 
curling all about them, everything plunged into absolute 
darkness, not even a friendly lantern to show them the 
way out of this dance of death. 

The classic 9Utlines of the theatre, the beautiful plush 
hangings, the arched windows with their stained glass, 
the stately pillars, became a morgue five minutes after the 
first little ribbon of flame made its way along the stage. 
Women and girls in the gallery never had a chance for life. 
They met the end still seated in their theatre chairs, their 
poor, impotent hands burnt into one commingled cinder 



362 



GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 



with tlie sides of tlie seats they had grasped when the 
panic came. Others, who had managed by the strength 
of terror to get into the aisles, found their awful ending 
in a mingled doom of smoke and fire and tearing of limbs 
in the j^assages and the open space back of the seats. 
Dozens of others, swept, carried, dragged or thrown out 
to the stairways, and even beyond them down to the land- 
ings in actual sight of the daylight that streamed through 
the big front doors — in sight of the throngs outside, the 
fire wagons and the smoking horses — died in great masses 
seven and eight feet high, limbs mingled fearfully together, 
clothing burnt off and faces caught in their last agonies, 
all turned toward the doors they could not reach. 

IMPROVISED MEANS OF ESCAPE. 

From windows at the north and west ends of the 
building the victims streamed, blinded by the smoke and 
crazed beyond any possibility of helping themselves 
further or of taking advantage of the aid extended to 
them from the upper floors of buildings facing the theatre. 
Ladders, planks, ropes, poles, everything that could possi- 
bly serve to assist these poor creatures in their battle for 
life, were rigged into bridges, but few got across alive. 

These things were utilized fifteen minutes after the 
first alarm to drag the charred bodies across, and over 
them passed rapidly one blackened corpse after another 
till every building on the north and west were filled with 
them. Barely five minutes after the first alarm was 
turned in firemen were struggling into the theatre, mak- 
ing their way, in some miraculous manner, through the 
maddened mob that was pouring out of the auditorium, 
and doing what little the_y could, not only to check the 
fire which was fast turning the whole interior shell into a 



GREATEST CALAMI x'Y OF RECENT TIMES. 363 

cauldron, but to aid the frantic hundreds in the upper 
balconies by ladders stretched from the main floor. 

A few — thirty at most— were rescued in this way, 
and then, the firemen, after controlling the flames, aban- 
doned their lengths of hose to go with the fast-gathering 
police and manfully reach what waited for them on the 
upper stairways and in the balcony seats. 

THE SILENT HEAPS OF DEAD. 
Here was no more struggling, no more franctic haste. 
Hundreds, with homes in every part of the city, still 
showing at their windows Christmas wreaths, still filled 
with the decorations of the holiday season, lay beyond all 
thought of worldly things in silent heaps of death. 
There were no men, even among those accustomed to 
scenes of destruction and mortality, who could approach 
these fearful, stilled masses calmly. Time and time again 
they started toward the upper stairvv^ays, caught one 
another by the arms, and cried like little children, stunned 
by the horror of it all. 

And still, outside the main entrance to the building, 
passers-by, attracted by the presence of the fire engines, 
had no knowledge of the fearful disaster inside. Hundreds 
of people passed and repassed within a block without 
knowing it, even hundreds of men stationed in the road- 
way, were asking one another if there had been any 
accident, and if any among the audience had been badly 

h art. 

But when from the inside began to stream a procession 
of firemen, carrying between them the charred remains of 
those who a little while before had been happy in the 
enjoyment of an afternoon's pleasure, the scene without 
changed as if by magic. 



a84' GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 

From every business street of the city, men, whose 
wives and families had gone to the matinee, streamed, with 
white faces and eyes blinded with half-frozen tears, over 
to the theatre, and screamed like madmen the names of 
those they were seeking. Many of them found theii 
loved ones safe, but still half crazed, in surrounding stores 
and hotels, others discovered them among the dead, iden- 
tified by some particle of dress, a half-charred hair ribbon, 
a shoe, or a locket. Others are still searching and will 
continue to search before they can finally assure them- 
selves that the happiness of their lives has gone foreover. 

MERCY KNOWS NO BOUNDS. 

Soon from every hospital in the city came ambulances, 
nurses and physicians ; priests and Sisters of Mercy, 
stood side by side with surgeons and great bands of women 
from St. Luke's, the Presbyterian and nearly every other 
hospital in the city, waiting patiently like soldiers till the 
moment they should be called on. Down the beautiful 
staircases, glittering again in the rows of electric lights, 
the current of which had been readjusted by electricians, 
came the procession of men carrying the dead and dying. 
In ten minutes a dozen stores had been converted into hos- 
pitals and morgues. 

Two large restuarants, one on Randolph and one on 
Dearborn street, flung their tables and counters on top of 
one another and laid out great heaps of table linen to be 
used for bandages for the wounded and coverings for the 
dead. All the great State street stores threw their main 
fl.oors open and sent to the theatre great piles of blankets, 
rubber cloth — anything and everything that could be 
utilized. 

Ambulances were re-enforced by dozens of wagons 



GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 355 

from tliese stores and tesming establisiiments and froin 
everywhere willing helpers poured out to do or give 
what help they could. In a little while, with frantic 
thousands trying to batter through strong lines of police 
flung across the corners of Dearborn and State streets, 
the bodies of the dead came faster and faster, till it 
seemed as if there was no place to lay them. 

SIDEWALKS FILLED WITH DEAD. 

The north sidewalk of Randolph street for a hundred 
yards was covered with these remains, packed side by side 
and covered with white blankets and tablecloths. Soon 
the great entrance was choked with them, and faster than 
morgue wagons could take them away they were deposited 
on the sidewalks and in every building in the neighbor- 
hood. 

Here and there, men ap in the gallery entrances 
could hear underneath the tangled masses, a faint moan 
—the despairing signal of some unfortunate for succor. 
Then, tearing, struggling at the blackened mass to pene- 
trate it and effect a rescue, they labored, cursing and 
crying. Some of the still living victims were rescued 
and taken out in time to be saved. Others died before 
they could be lifted from the heap of dead ; others, while 
they were being carried down the staircases. 

A flower and seed store directly opposite the theatre, 
filled with green stuff and beautiful blossoms, was choked 
with bodies brought there and laid on the floors. The 
Sherman House, Kohlsaat's and Thompson's restaurants, 
the Tremont Building, the Borden Block, the Union 
Restaurant, the lobby of the Garrick Theatre, Marshall 
Field's store, and all the saloons and cigar stores in the 
vicinity were filled with the dead and dying. 



366 GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 

In and out among them wandered incessantly frantic 
parents, brothers and sisters, looking for their relatives; 
members of the company, still in their fantastic costnmes, 
staggering half-distracted by the horror from which they 
had escaped ; doctors and nurses, patient and sympathetic, 
doing their work rapidly and skillfully, never swerving 
from the most frightful tasks, if by performing them they 
could bring relief or beckon back the little life left in 
those among the mass of poor creatures who still 
lingered. 

NOBLE ^A^ORK OF SUCCOR. 

Bvery drug store in the downtown district was 
emptied of everything that could possibly be of service, 
and, often by the light of lanterns and candles, these 
devoted men and women labored on till far into the night, 
till some of them dropped from sheer fatigue. At six 
o'clock the firemen and policemen engaged in the work of 
bringing out the bodies were still tramping wearily up 
and down those stairways of death, and still finding work 
for their hands and mournful burdens to bring down 
from the upper floors. 

The following from the pen of a graphic writer will 
be read with mournful interest : 

" Where beauty and fashion and the happy amuse- 
ment seeker thronged the palatial playhouse to fall a few 
moments later before a deadly blast of smoke and flame 
sweeping over all with irresistible force, the dawn of the 
last day of the passing year found confusion, chaos and 
an all-prevadin^ sense of the awful. It seemed to radiate 
the chilling, depressing volume from the streaked, grime- 
covered walls and the flame-licked ceilings overhead. 
Against this fearful background the few grim firemen oi 



GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 3(J7 

police, moving silently aboul the ruins, searching for 
overlooked dead or abandoned property, loomed up like 
fitful ghosts. 

*' The progress of their noiseless and ghastly r^uest 
proved one circumstance survivors are too unsettled to 
realize. With the opening of the stage door to permit 
the escape Ox the members of the ' Mr. Bluebeard ' 
company and the breaking of the skylight above the flue- 
like scene loft that tops the stage, the latter was con- 
verted into a furnace through which a tremendous draft 
poured like a blow pipe, driving billows of flame into the 
faces of the terrified audience. With exits above the 
parquet floor simply choked up with the crushed bodies 
of struggling victims, who made the first rush for safety, 
the packed hundreds in balcony and gallery faced fire 
that moved them up in waves. 

FIRE GREEDILY DEVOURS THE DECORATIONS. 

" With a swirl that sounded death, the thin bright 
sheet of fire rolled on from stage to rear wall. It fed on 
the rich box curtains, seized upon the sparse veneer of 
subdued red and green decorations spread upon wall, 
ceiling and balcony facings. It licked the fireproof 
materials below clean and rolled on with a roar. Over 
seat tops and plush rail cushions it sped. Then it 
snuffed out, having practically nothing to feed upon save 
the tangled mass of wood scene frames, batons and paint- 
soaked canvas on the stage. 

" There firemen were directing streams of water that 
poured over the premises in great cascades, in volume 
aggregating many tons. A few streams were directed 
about the body of the house, where vagrant tongues of 
flame still found material on which to feed. Silence 



368 GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 

reigned— the silence of deatli, but none realized the 
appaling story behind the awful calm. 

"The stampede that followed the first alarm, a 
struggle in which most contestants were women and 
children, fighting with the desperation of death, ter- 
minated with the sudden sweep of the sea of flames across 
the body of the house. The awful battle ended before 
the irresistible hand of death, which fell upon contestants 
and those behind alike. Somehow those on the main 
floor managed to force their way out. Above, where the 
presence of narrower exits, stairways that precipitated the 
masses of humanity upon each other and the natural air 
current for the billows of flame to follow, spelled death to 
the occupants of the two balconies, the wave of flame, 
smoke and gas smote the multitude. 

APPALLING SHRIEKS OF THE VICTIMS. 

" Dropping where they stood, most of the victims 
were consumed beyond recognition. Some who were pro- 
tected from contact with the flames by masses of humanity 
piled upon them, escaped death, and were dragged out 
later by rescuers, suffering all manner of injury. The 
majority, however, who beheld the indescribably terrifying 
spectacle of the wave of death moving upon them through 
the air died then and there without a moment for prepara- 
tion. Few survived to tell the tale. The blood-curdling 
cry of mingled prayers and curses, of pleas for help and 
meaningless shrieks of despair died away before the roar 
of the fire and the silence fell that greeted the firemen 
upon their entry. 

" Survivors describe the situation as a parallel of the 
condition at Martinique, when a wave of gas and fire 
rolled down the mountain side and destroyed everything 



GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 369 

in its path. Here, however, one circumstance was re- 
versed, for the wave of death leaped from below and smote 
its victims, springing from the very air beneath them. 

" In a few minutes it was all over — all but the weep- 
ing. In those few minutes obscure people had evolved 
into heroes ; staid business men drove out patrons to 
convert their stores into temporary hospitals and morgues ; 
others converted their trucks and delivery wagons into 
improvised ambulances ; stocks of drugs, oils and blankets 
were showered upon the police to aid in relief work and a 
corps of physicians and surgeons suf&cient to the needs 
of an army had organized. 

MIRACULOUS FEATS OF RESCUE. 

" Rescues little short of miraculous were accom- 
plished and life and limb were risked by public servants 
and citizens with no thought of personal consequences. 
Public sympathy was thoroughly aroused long before the 
extent of the horror was known and before the sickening 
report spread throughout the city that the greatest holo- 
caust ever known in the history of theatricals had fallen 
upon Chicago. 

"While the streets began to crowd for blocks around 
with weeping and heartbroken persons in mortal terror 
because of knowledge that loved ones had attended the 
performance, patrol wagons, ambulances and open wagons 
hurried the injured to the hospitals. Before long they 
were called upon to perform the more grewsome task of 
removing the dead. In wagon loads the latter were carted 
away. Undertaking establishments both north, south 
and west of the river threw open their doors. 

" Piled in windows, in the angles of the stairway, 
where the second balcony refugees were brought face to 

N.Y. 24 



370 GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 

face and in a deatli struggle with the occupants of the 
first balcony, the dead covered a space of fifteen or twenty 
feet square and nearly seven feet in depth. All were 
absolutely safe from the fire itself when they met death, 
having emerged from the theatre proper into the separate 
building containing the foyer. In this great court there 
was absolutely nothing to burn and the doors were only a 
few feet away. There the ghastly pile lay, a mute mon- 
ument to the powers of terror. Above and about towered 
shimmering columns and facades of polished marble, 
whose cold and unharmed surfaces «»eemed to bespeak 
contempt for human folly. In that portion of the Iro- 
quois structure the only physical evidences of damages 
were a few windows broken during the excitement. 

EXITS WERE CHOKED WITH BODIES. 

" To that pile of dead is attributed the great loss of 
life within. The bodies choked up the entrance, barring 
the egress of those behind. Neither age nor youth, sex, 
quality or condition were sacred in the awful battle in the 
doorway. The gray and aged, rich, poor, young and 
those obviously invalids in life lay in a tangled mass all 
on an awful footing of equality in silent annihilation. 

" Within and above equal terrors were encountered 
in what at first seemed countless victims. Lights, 
patience and hard work brought about some semblance 
of system and at last word was given that the last body 
had been removed from the charnel house. A large 
police detail surrounded the place all night, and with the 
break of day search of the premises was renewed, none 
being admitted save by presentation of a written order 
from Chief of Police O'Neill. Fire engines pumped away 
removing the lake of water that flooded the basement to 



GREATEST CALAMITY OF RECENT TIMES. 371 

the depth of ten feet. As the flood was lowered it began 
to be apparent that the basement was free of dead. 

'^ Searchers gazing down from the heights of the 
npper balcony surveyed the scene of death below with 
horror stamped upon their faces. Fire had left its terrify- 
ing blight in a colorless, garish monotony that suggests 
the burned- out crater of an extinct volcano. In the 
wreckage^ the scattered garments and purses, fragments 
of charred bodies and other debris strewn within thous- 
ands of bits of brilliantly colored glass, lay as they fell 
shr.ttered in the fight against the flames. A few skulls 
were seen. 

FIND BUSHELS OF PURSES. 

" Five bushel baskets were filled with women's purses 
gathered by the police. A huge pile of garments was 
removed to a near-by saloon, where an officer guarded 
them pending removal to some more appropriate place. 
The shoes and overshoes picked up among the seats filled 
two barrels to overflowing. 

" The fire manifested itself in the flies above the stage 
during the second act. The double octette was singing 
' In the Pale Moonlight ' when the tragedy swept mirth 
and music aside, to give way to a more somber and fright- 
ful performace. Confusion on the stage, panic in the 
auditorium, phenomenal spread of the incipient blaze, 
failure of the asbestos fire curtain to fall in place when 
lowered followed in rapid progress, with the holocaust as 
the climax." 



CHAPTER XXL 

AWFUIv SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 

/^NE of the most graphic descriptions of the horror 
^-^ was given by Frank Houseman, professional ball 
player, who, with Charley Dexter, formerly of the West 
Side baseball team, was occupying an upper box in the 
theatre when the fire started. Both Houseman and 
Dexter led in forcing a way out of the theatre, and were 
active in the work of rescue that followed. Here is 
Houseman's story : 

" Charley Dexter and I were in the front upper box 
rn the right hand side. We had just been talking about 
the double row of little boys and girls that filled the front 
balcony seats. The theatre was dark for the second act, 
'.nd the stage was only partly lighted, too. 

" Maybe a dozen of the chorus was on singing * I 
Meet You in the Moon's Pale Light,' when I noticed a 
little tongue of flame back in the flies on the other side 
of the stage. It was up just below the bottom of the 
(\rop curtain, which was raised, and looked just like some- 
body shaking a blazing handkerchief. 

" ' Charley,' I said, ' it's us to the exits. This may 
not be anything, but you know the dark little hall we 
had to come through.' 

" So we moved along quietly before anybody in the 
audience knew an37thing was wrong. We hadn't an}^ 
more than got to the next floor when the stage began to 
get smoky, and you could hear the crowd in the theatre 
begin to get worried. Just then Eddie Foy came out to 

the front of the stage, and with the little blazing bits of 

372 



SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 373 

scenery dropping back of him, lie kept saying : ' Don't 
get frightened ; sit still ; it's only a little stage fire.' 

" By this time the whole theatre was in an uproar. 
Big chunks of blazing scenery began to fall. The girls 
on the stage were fainting, and Dexter and I rushed to a 
couple of exists on the east side. 

FINDS DOOR SHUT. 

" ' Open the door,' said I to the usher. 

*' ' Wait till the drop curtain comes down,' he said. 

" By this time the crowd was getting wild and push- 
ing against the doors. The stage was blazing and the 
smoke rolling out into the body of the theatre. 

" ^ For God's sake, open the doors ! ' I shouted. 

" The usher didn't move. Well, I grabbed the fellow 
and threw him as far as I could and burst open the door. 
The minute it gave way the crowd shoved me with a rush 
and jammed me against a pair of iron doors that were 
locked. I felt of the latch and found it was like the one 
on my ice box at home. 

" ' This is easy,' I said to Dexter, who had broken 
open another door. We caught hold of the big iron 
latch, and with a few wrenches pulled it open. At that 
minute a big sheet of fire came out from the stage with a 
puff that drove the crowd mad. In a flash I saw Eddy 
Foy apparently buried in flames, and before I could catch 
my breath the crowd caught me and almost threw me 
clear across the alley leading to State Street. 

'* In that alley was the most awful sight I ever saw. 
The fire escapes over the alley were packed with strug- 
gling, screaming people fighting to jump to the ground. 
They were falling like rain drops and making a pile of 
dead and dying under the escapes. One man landed or 



374 SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 

the mass of people and struggled to his knees, when a 
woman fell on his head and struck him dead. I saw 
another woman clinging to the outside of the lower fire 
escape. 

" ' Jump,' I yelled. ' It's only ten feet.' 
" As she came down I held out my arms to break 
her fall, and she struck my shoulder. By this time the 
smoke was piling out of the door we had broken open, 
and Dexter and I worked till we were exhausted pulling 
out women and children who were overcome by the smoke 
and the horror. 

" It was terrible. Mothers were calling for their 
little ones. Little girls were screaming and bewildered. 
A mass of crazy human beings were almost tearing each 
other to pieces trying to crowd out of that one small 
opening that we had made." 

DEXTER PICTURES HORROR. 

Dexter's story, too, furnishes an appalling word 
picture of the terrible stampede. 

" I can hardly realize that it isn't all a horrible night- 
mare," he said. " When Houseman called my attention 
to the blaze I didn't think there was much to it, but while 
I looked it seemed to take in the whole side of the stage. 

" ' You'd better bring out that lady,' said I to a man 
who was in the same box with us, with a girl. 

" ' I guess I know my business,' he answered, and 
he stayed behind. 

" God help those two, for Houseman and I didn't 
more than have time to get down stairs before the whole 
stage was ablaze, with Eddie Foy trying to keep the 
crowd quiet and the orchestra leader playing his fiddle, 
facing the audience, and nodding to them to sit down. 



SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 375 

"When I readied the exit three little children were 
clinging to me. The door was locked, but I broke it open. 
The crowd by this time was crushing against me like a 
lot of wild people. I don't know how we got the iron 
doors open, but when I got into the alley I found two 
children in my arms, and Houseman was there helping 
the women. I saw him hold out his arms to a woman 
who jumped from the fire escape, and it seemed to me 
that she knocked him twenty feet. 

THE FRENZY OF DESPAIR. 

" The fire escapes were filled with women and chil- 
dren. It was awful, awful ! There they were packed 
together so closely that only a few could break loose and 
jump, and some of them were burning to death before 
our eyes. 

" I took the children into a corner drug store and 
hadn't any more than set them down w^hen in rushed a 
woman with her hair down and her clothes almost torn 
off and grabbed the little girl, screaming: ^'Darling! 
darling ! don't you know your mother ? '' 

" When I got back to the alley the firemen and police 
were pulling out the dead and mangled, and Houseman 
was crying like a baby, while he carried away the little 
ones. If I live a thousand years I can never forget that 
awful scene.'' 

William " Smiley '' Corbett and Edward Butler, a city 
employe, were met by Houseman and Dexter and rushed 
into the burning building at the Randolph street entrance 
to help in the rescue: This is Corbett's story : 

" I didn't intend to go into the building, but, as I 
stood there, an old woman came up to me tearing her hair 
and screamed : 



376 SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 

"'Help me I Help me I My two cliildren are in 
there.' 

" Well, no man could stand that. ' That means ns.' 
I said to Butler, and we started. Policeman John Rohau 
tried to stop us. 

" * You'll burn up, sure/ he said. 

" We made for the east side, intending to go into the 
main body of the theatre, but in our excitement we got 
tangled up in the dark hallways, and the first we knew 
we were up against a door at the top of the building and 
everything was as dark as pitch. 

" ' My God I hear the screams ! ' gasped Butler. 

" We caught hold of the handles of the door, and 
managed to break it open. Piled up five feet deep by the 
door was a mass of dead and dying creatures. I grabbed 
hold of an arm, and the skin peeled off in my hands. 
The smoke was suffocating and the heat was terrible. As 
we pulled the poor victims out it seemed to me that I 
couldn't go on. 

GREAT HEAPS OF DEAD. 

** There were young girls, with their waists torn off, 
women and children scorched and dead in great heaps, 
and a few still struggling feebly. Everything showed 
that the fight to get out must have been something 
beyond description. And all was in smoke and darkness 
so dense that we could only see those who were next to 
the door. 

" We broke open a door leading into a big, empty 
room, and that let in a little light. Into this room we 
carried the dead, and started downstairs with the few who 
were still alive. By this time the firemen had come up, 
and we passed tli« living along. The hallway was so 



SPECTACLfi DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 377 

narrow that only one could come or go at a time. So 
those coming up had to go back to the landing to let the 
ones pass who were carrying the victims down. 

" It seemed as if nobody escaped from the gallery, 
judging by what we saw. When we got down to the bal- 
cony we found women and children piled up against the 
door almost to the top and nearly all dead. I couldn't 
stand it any longer. It made me sick all over, and I 
barely had strength enough left to get into the open air. 

PERISH IN THE DARK. 

"When Corbett started into the theatre," said Mr. 
Butler, Mr. Corbett's companion in the rescue work, " I 
made up my mind it was a case of follow the leader. It 
was as dark as pitch, and I can't tell now how we got 
where we did. When we broke the door open leading into 
the gallery I saw the most pitiful sight that I ever expect 
to see. Women and children and even babies were jam- 
med together in the most frightful way. Some of them 
were still gasping, some of them burned, and all of them 
with their clothing torn to shreds. 

" I pulled out one girl whose hand was burned to a 
crisp clear to the elbow. It seemed as if they were all 
little children and women, and they were mangled, torn 
and burned until it would break your heart. Corbett car, 
ried them away two at a time, and for ten minutes it 
seemed we did nothing but try to untangle the heap of 
dead and dying. By that time the firemen came to help 
us, and we carried the living out into the air. 

*'When I was asked how many were dead, I said 
there might be two hundred and there might be a thou- 
sand, for I don't see how any of them could have got 
away from that black hole. Hades doesn^t more than 



378 



SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 



begin to describe what we saw when we broke in tbat gal- 
lery door." 

Dazed and horrified by the frightful calamity, mem- 
bers of the Iroquois Theatre force and of the cast of " Mr. 
Blue Beard " were absolutely at a loss when asked for a 
coherent explanation of the cause of the tragedy. As 
soon as the panic broke, the four hundred persons on the 
stage hurried oiit through the stage entrance and escaped, 
all without serious injury, although some were slightly 

burned. 

The first act of the piece was seen by an almost rec- 
ord-breaking assemblage, largely women and children out 
for a holiday matinee. Many had taken standing-room, 
unable to obtain seats, and there were eighteen hundred 
persons within the walls when the flames started. Among 
them was Harry Powers, part owner of the house. 

STAR STARTS MUSIC. 

Shortly after the second act had begun, at 3:35 o'clock, 
flames and sparks were seen to run along the bordering of 
the proscenium arch. A cry of " Fire ! " arose, and Eddie 
Foy, principal comedian of the company, stepped before 
the 'footlights to warn the audience to keep calm. He 
then asked the musicians to play, and they struck up a 
popular air. Mr. Foy and the musicians were applauded 
by the house. The flames grew brighter, and then the 
panic suddenly broke. 

Mr. Fitzgerald, as the star is known m private lite, 
tells the following story of his experiences : 

." I was standing in the first entrance, with my little 
son Bryant, waiting for my cue, when the fire started up 
in the flies. The double octette was on the stage, and the 
pale moonlight scene was on. After I had asked the 



SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 379 

audience to be quiet, I ordered the asbestos curtain low- 
ered. The men obeyed, but the curtain stuck and did not 
come down. After that I hardly know what happened. 
A great gust of wind, probably caused by the opening of 
the front doors, swept a cloud of flame into the theatre. 
Quick as a flashlight the many gauze drops flared up, and 
the fittings of the house began to smoulder. 

WARNS CHORUS GIRLS. 

*" I rushed into the dressing-rooms, and told the girls 
to run for their lives. Then I ran for my five-year-old 
boy, who was still in the wings, and managed to escape 
Justin time. There was no explosion — of that I am sure. 
Some disarrangement of the electrical apparatus must 
have first started the blaze, but how it came about I can- 
not imagine. It all seems like a horrible nightmare, and 
I can't persuade myself that I am awake." 

When Mr. Foy, still wearing his stage make-up, hur- 
ried in the Randolph street entrance of the Sherman House 
with his son, he met his wife, who was just starting in 
search of him. She burst into tears as she embraced 
him, exclaiming, "Thank God, you are safe." Chief 
Electrician Archie Bernard insisted that he was at an 
absolute loss to account for the origin of the fire. 

" I don't know anything about how it started,'' he 
reiterated time and again, " but I do not believe that there 
was any explosion." 

That there was no explosion was also insisted on by 
Stage Fireman William C. Sailer, who was standing but 
twenty feet away from the electric searchlight which 
caused the fire, and who rang down the asbestos curtain. 

" This electric searchlight was about ten feet above 
the stage and at the right of the stage facing the house,'' 



380 SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 

said Sailer. " I was not more tlian twenty feet away and 
I suddenly saw a kind of flash, but there was no explo- 
sion. In an instant one of the foliage curtains was ablaze. 
" I rang down the asbestos curtain right away and 
then seized an extinguishing appliance. I hurled this and 
three others at the searchlight, but it was too high for me. 
In the meantime the asbestos curtain had come rolling 
down part way, but for the first time it refused to come 
all the way. It stuck above our heads, and I and others 
made frantic jumps at it to try to bring it down. We 
failed. 

EMPLOYES IN PERIL. 

'' By this time it seemed that the whole of the fly 
curtains were a whirl of flame, and we rushed to the stage 
exits facing on Dearborn street. We were piled up there 
in a mad, struggling mass for a few seconds, until the 
bolts at the top could be undone, and then we poured out 
with a fierce rush. What caused the fire I cannot say." 

"A flash, an explosion, then pandemonium; that's 
all there was to it, and that too quick to realize what had 
occurred." With these words Lem Savage, one of the 
stage hands, described the calamity as seen by him on the 
stage. " With the explosion the lights on the stage went 
out and the glass dropped out of the skylight. What else 
occurred I do not know, because with Joseph J. Hamilton, 
another one of our boys, we rushed to the basement to 
rescue the eighteen children down there awaiting their 
turn. I believe we got most of them out." 

Joseph Hamilton, another one of the stage hands, 
said all the credit for saving the children in the basement 
belonged to his fellow-worker, Savage, and William C. 
Sailer, the theatre fireman, stationed on the stage. " The 



SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 381 

moment tlie explosion occurred Sailer grabbed hand gren- 
ades and began tbrowing them into the fire," said Hamil- 
ton, " and when he saw that was not putting out the fire, 
he tried to put it out with his hands, and burned both 
hands pretty badly. Sailer is the hero of the stage work- 
ers and the bravest man I know." 

SPARKS ARE BLAMED. 

A member of the stage staff of the Olympic Theatre, 
who hurried into the Iroquois as soon as he heard the 
alarm given, gave the following explanation of the catas- 
ti'Ophe : 

" Sparks from calcium lights, which were being oper- 
ated up in the flies to illuminate the stage, caused the fire. 
The lamps were turned upward, so that the sparks from 
the carbons fell upon one of the inner curtains. The 
flames ran along this, and spread like a flash to the other 
gauzy drops with which the loft was crowded. There 
must have been more than one hundred thin, flimsy drap- 
eries, which were used in the many tableaux and transfor- 
mation scenes of the extravaganza. Through these the 
fire shot in the twinkling of an eye; the fastenings and 
ropes burned away, and the entire mass fell upon the stage 
in a burst of smoke and sparks. The sound of this fall 
must have been the ' explosion ' which many people assert 
they heard.'' 

Herbert Cawthorue, who played the part of Pat Shaw 
in the extravaganza, took an active part in saving the 
chorus girls and the others of the cast. After the heat 
had driven him from the building he made two attempts to 
re-enter his dressing-rooms and save some of his property, 
but was prevented by the firemen. In his stage costume, i 
and suffering severely from the cold, he took refuse in a. 



382 SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 

Store at 47 Dearborn street, wliere lie told tlie following 

story: 

" I am positive that a calcium liglit started the fire, 
for tbey were being used to illuminate tbe stage for the 
song ' In tbe Pale Moonligbt/ when tbe panic started. 
Wbile I was standing in tbe wings on tbe left side of tbe 
stage, a peculiar sputtering from tbe ligbts caused me to 
look up. Above tbe stage, and perbaps twelve feet above 
tbe top of tbe proscenium arcb, was a swinging platform, 
from wbicb twelve ligbts were operated. Tbe curtain was 
blazing sligbtly, and I at once tbougbt tbat tbe sparks 
from one of tbe calciums bad ignited it. I glanced at tbe 
stage and saw tbat tbe song was being carried tbrougb, 
and tbat most of tbe company bad not noticed tbe blaze. 

ASBESTOS CURTAIN FAILS TO WORK. 

" At tbe same moment tbe fireman stationed bebind 
tbe scenes rusbed up witb a patent fire extinguisber, but 
tbe stream went wide of tbe place wbere tbe flames were 
flickering. Wbile be was attempting to make an effective 
use of tbe macbine tbe flames suddenly swirled down. 
Eddie Foy sbouted, ' Lower tbe asbestos curtain,' and tbe 
Stage bands obeyed, but tbe fastening must bave burned 
away, for it did not move. It seems to me tbat tbe stage 
fireman migbt bave averted tbe calamity if be bad not 
been over-excited. 

" Tbe 500 persons bebind tbe scenes took tbe event 
calmly enougb and burried out in tbeir make-up. Some 
of tbe young women went out in tbe cold only partly 
attired, baving bad absolutely no time to tbrow a bit of 
clotbing over tbeir sboulders." 

Tbere were 180 drop scenes and draperies bung in 
tbe fly-loft of tbe tbeatre, and tbe drapery wbicb caught 



SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 383 

fire first probably blazed for a full minute before it was 
noticed. Then Stage Manager Carlson ordered the men 
in the fly gallery to lower it, but in their confusion they 
pulled it up, and the flames spread to the other hangings. 
The men in the loft barely had time to climb down before 
the general conflagration. Stage Manager Carlson checked 
up the list of players at five o'clock and found that none 
was missing. A few were slightly burned and injured by 
falling scenery. 

HEROIC ACTS OF ASSISTANCE. 

Innumerable acts of heroism were performed in assist- 
ing people from the theatre. Persons who were seated 
next to each other, or in the same row, in the first or 
second balcony, met with terrible experiences. True, 
most of them were suffocated or trampled to death, but 
others got out with only slight burns or scratches. 
Within a few seconds after the crowd began fighting its 
way from the smoke-filled auditorium men were at work 
endeavoring to assist those who appeared to be in the 
worse plight. 

Standing out above all the fortunate circumstances 
surrounding a disaster about which there were so few 
hopeful features were the efforts of several painters and 
calciminers who were at work on a recitation room on the 
third floor of the Northwestern University Building, 
facing the alley across from the wrecked theatre. The 
men were busily engaged when the screams of affrighted 
stage hands and actors drew their attention. Smoke was 
pouring out of the apertures opposite the third balcony 
of the Iroquois Theatre. In a moment the panes of glass 
were smashed and frantic individuals appeared, shouting 
and praying for aid. The few fire escape platforms were 



384 SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 

immediately filled. The iron ladders had not been put 
in place. 

As the fire gained headway within the stage space 
and as it swept over the mass of people crowding toward 
the Randolph Street entrances the crush of humanity in 
the upper balconies near the alleyway was redoubled. 
The strain had to come soon. And it did come, with 
dreadful results. People began tumbling from windows 
to the stone-paved alleyway. The women, children and 
even the men who were forced into the balconies, were so 
pushed that they saw death in front and behind. Many 
leaped into the air and were killed by the concussion. 

Firemen, now on the scene, spread a net, which some 
of the Iroquois ushers helped to hold, and a few dropped 
into this and were only slightly hurt. But as seconds 
flew the concentration of human energy at one or two 
points in the upper rear part of the building became 
indescribable. 

MAKE BRIDGE OF PLANK. 

*' Smash in that window," yelled one of the decora^ 
tors. " Smash in the window and run one of these planks 
across into one of the theatre windows. Move fast or 
hundreds will be killed." 

Planks that had been used as scaffolding in exterior 
work and were piled in the room were seized. One plank 
was shoved across within a minute after the worst crush 
in the upper part of the theatre was noticed. No sooner 
was it in place than people began crawling across it. 
Women, hysterical, started over the narrow board, and 
though encouraged by those at the other end, lost their 
grip in many instances and fell. Probably a dozen were 
killed in this manner. But, as in the Newhall House fire 



SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 385 

in Milwaukee, twenty years ago, the plank walk, slippery 
as it was, meant life to probably three score. Three 
planks were eventually in place, and then firemen ap- 
peared and walked over and helped or carried people ouU 
Many of the suffocated were brought over into the uni- 
versity building and were treated by physicians. 

By five o'clock the catastrophe was at its zenith, and 
it was recognized that all left within the theatre were 
lost. Then it was that firemen sought out the scorched 
bodies in the upper balconies. A rope was used, and as a 
body was obtained it was fastened to the rope and pulled 
across the alley on the plank. Ambulances removed the 
dead to the morgue as fast as possible. 

DEAD SEEN EVERYWHERE. 

In the lower part of the auditorium, in front of the 
theatre and in the rear, the dead seemed to be every- 
where. 

William Quigley, chief usher in the top balcony, 
described the scene in this way : 

" There was a flash of fire on the stage, then smoke, 
then a cry of fire, and then the rush. It all seemed to 
come at once, although I am told efforts were made to 
stop the panic. My gallery was filled to its capacit}?-, and 
not a few people were standing. I closed the doors to 
reassure the crowd that no danger was imminent if they 
kept cool. But everyone seemed crazed with fear. I 
jumped up and helped women and children out. Many 
rushed to the fire escapes, but stood there dazed. Then 
the crowd began to push them over. I helped carry out 
forty bodies. Sometimes we had to brush aside a dozen 
dead bodies to get at a living person." 

William Corbett known about town as " Smiley " 

N.Y.LT) 



386 SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 

Corbett, was one who rushed into the theatre to the top 
floor and helped fainting and helpless women out. 
Waiters in Thompson's restaurant, next door to the 
theatre, raised a ladder from the roof of a shed to a fire 
escape landing at the north end of the alley and helped at 
least fifteen people to the ground in this way. / 

CARRIES OUT CRIPPLED WIFE. 

Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Bolte and their three 
children were in the first balcony and had an exciting 
experience. Mrs. Bolte is a cripple, and her husband, 
who is a dry goods commission merchant living in Win- 
netka, picked her up and started for the exit on the north 
side. He called to the three children, Willard and Guy, 
boys of eighteen and fifteen, to follow and to take care of 
their sister, Linda, a girl of thirteen. Linda, however, 
was so frightened that she started in the opposite direc- 
tion and the family soon became separated. Mrs. Bolte 
managed to reached the fire escape, where she was soon 
rescued by the firemen. Mr. Bolte and the boys made 
their escape by the exit, but were unable to find Linda. 

Mrs. Grant Williams and two children of Jefferson 
Park were in the west side of the theatre. As they 
started for the door they were thrown down and were in 
danger of being crushed, when a man assisted them to 
their feet and accompanied them to the exit. 

One of the escapes was that of Miss Millie Overlock 
of Virginia, a young woman who was visiting A. L. 
Thomas, of Lord & Thomas. Miss Overlock's com- 
panion, Remington Thomas, made an heroic eifort to 
escape with her, but near the door the two became sepa- 
rated, and Thomas, who is eighteen years old, is among 
the missing. 



SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 



387 



Foremost among the remarkable escapes was that of 
little Winnie Gallagher, twelve years old, of 4925 
Michigan avenue. The girl occupied a seat in the third 
row from the front on the main floor. Unassisted the 
girl made her way through the surging mass of terror- 
stricken persons and escaped. When she reached the 
street her clothing had been torn into shreds. In the 
excitement in the street she was pushed about m the 
crowds and finally was taken to Central station by a 
newsboy. The boy had taken off his overcoat and 
wrapped it about the girl. 

Mrs Emanuel Buxbaum with her two daughters, 
Myra and Louise, and their grandparents, Mr. and Mrs 
Abraham Kuh, were seated six rows back from the front 
when the panic began. Cautioning his family to hold 
together, Mr. Kuh took one of the children m his arms 
while Mrs. Buxbaum carried the other one, and the party 
managed to struggle to the open air. 

POLICEMEN JOIN IN RESCUE. 
Tohn Kesler and William Coles, policemen, were 
among the first to participate in the work of rescue. 
Keeler, passing the theatre, saw smoke coming from tne 
Sn enLnce aud turned in the first alarm. Returnmg 
to the theatre he was joined by Coles, and the two carried 
a dozen people down from the balcony before overcome by 
smoke Keeler and Coles thought a hundred people 
escaped from the first balcony uninjured. Later they 
carried bodies from th. second balcony down the fire 

escapes in the alley. . 

"They were climbing over each other m the 
balconv," said Keeler. " It was an awful sight." 

Frank Slosson and his daughter, from Kenosha, 



388 SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 

Wis,, barely escaped with their lives. In getting out of 
the theatre Mr. Slosson received a severe scalp wound 
from a piece of falling timber, while his daughter's 
clothing was torn. 

SENDS LITTLE GIRLS HOME. 

W. H. Newcomb of Kvanston, was standing on the 
cast side of State street, opposite the alley leading to the 
theatre, waiting for a car, when he saw smoke and heard 
shrieks of women coming from the second story. He ran 
across the street and had just started to go up the alley 
when he met a crowd of people, mostly women, without 
hats or wraps, coming toward State street. Among these 
he noticed four little girls shivering and crying with 
terror. He took them into the Burton Building, secured 
a cab and sent them home. 

Miss Gregg said : " We were sitting eleven rows back 
from the stage and the second act had just begun when 
the curtain began to blaze up. Then an awful rush for 
the exits began. I caught one of my feet in a seat, but 
with the aid of my companions was able to loosen myself. 
There were six of us in the party, and when we reached 
the fire escape at the east side of the theatre I gave one 
look back and saw women and children in a great mass 
surging toward the different exists, all tumbling over each 
other. One woman was in flames. We reache'I the alley 
and were rescued by Mr. Newcomb." 

*' Harold Dyrenforth, Chicago representative of the 
New York Life Insurance Company, was among the num- 
ber who spent an agonized night hunting for lost ones. 
His two little daughters, Ruth and Helen, aged fourteen 
and eight years respectivel}^ went to the theatre accom- 
panied by the maid, Alma Krland. They occupied seats 



SPECTACLE DESCRIBED BY THE RESCUED. 



389 



in tlie eighth row of the first balcony, and the efforts of 
their parents to find them proved unavailing. 

" Rev. J. P. Brushingham, pastor of the First Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, was at the Northwesten University 
Building when the fire broke out. 

" ' It was awful,' said Dr. Brushingham. ' The scenes of 
grief were too terrible to witness. I shudder to think of 
entering a crowded hall again. The sight of those piles 
of dead and the tears and screams of anxious ones seek- 
ing their loved ones was heartrending.' 

'' Alexander H. Revell had sent his daughter Mar- 
garet, with a little friend, Elizabeth Harris, in charge of 
a maid, to see the performance. News of the fire reached 
him at his store not five minutes after the blaze started, 
and, jumping into a cab, he drove madly to the scene. 

" By the greatest good fortune one of the first persons 
he encountered was the hysterical maid, who informed 
him that his daughter and her friend were safe. Mr. Re- 
vell then hastened into the theatre and aided in the rescue 

work. 

" ' I worked in the upper balconies,' he said later. 
' The sight of those poor women and their little children, 
with clenched fists raised as though trying to beat their 
way to safety is too horribe for me to attempt to describe. 
But I thought of how my own little one had been saved, 
and I conquered my horror, and did all I could to save 
those who were not past saving. I assisted the police and 
firemen in carrying down more than twenty bodies.' " 



CHAPTER XXII. 

DESPERATE STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 

THE scene was almost too heartrending to be believed. 
We must go back to the convulsions of nature for a 
more dreadful story of swift deatb than occurred in the 
Iroquois theatre. There have been greater horrors by 
flood, by volcanoes, by the uprising of nature's forces, but 
if there w^as ever a more appalling chapter traced to man's 
hand history fails to tell it save in the records of battle 
alone. Of fire horrors, as they are commonly known, 
certainly nothing like it ever occurred in this country or 
any other. 

There an ornate million-dollar theatre, assured, of 
course, as thoroughly fireproof. Within were women and 
children, and a few men — a typical, merry, holiday matinee 
audience. One thousand were in the galleries. There 
were many entrances offering the usual number of exits, 
all, of course, sufficient to depopulate the building, in case 
of fire. We have seen that often enough on the pro- 
grammes. There were five men in uniforms in the aisles, 
provided by the city government. It was a pretty, happy 
scene. There was a darkened stage, there were a dozen 
singing maidens and a popular comedian singing a 
popular air. 

Now, what happened ? A fuse or two blew from a 
calcium light that made the pale moon. The spark struck 
the ginger-bread scenery ; the scenery blazed to the stage. 

And then ! Well, then in five minutes this costly 
playhouse became a red urn of fire, and a great heart- 
breaking cry, such a cry as splits a stone of a Caesar's 
heart, arose in that building. It was the cry of a man or 
390 



STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH, 



391 



woman, clinging to a storm-swept raft, who sees tlie others 
go down before them. The scene was something that no 
human pen can tell. A circle of flame swept from the 
stage around the balcony and galleries, driven into a 
whirlwind by six great automatic elevators and the open 
doors. It moved faster than the calcium of the pale 
moonlight and as fierce as a blazing meteor. 

There was a wild, raging, trampling rush for life. It 
is not easy to fancy what one would do in such a scene, 
but all seemingly acted together. Men and women fought 
like unleashed hounds for the first exit ; little children 
were crushed in the arms of their mothers ; clothes and 
jewels were torn from the owners, lorgnettes and purses 
were tossed on the floors. 

BATTLE FOR LIFE HARDEST IN BALCONIES. 
This was the first scene. On the main floor the panic 
was quite as fierce as elsewhere, but escape was easier. 
It was in the balconies that the battle for life was hardest, 
and there, indeed, was scarcely a chance for escape. The 
galleries were, within no time at all, heaped with a help- 
less struggling, insane mass of people. As the flaming 
circle crept higher and higher, choking the audience with 
black masses of smoke, many were literally too paralyzed 
for movement, so that at the end and after it was all over, 
there was the strange, grewsome picture of a score or more 
dead leaning silently over the rails as if still glancing at 

the play. 

But down at the doorway it was a wave backward ot 
human beings fighting for the blessing of life. What 
heroism was shown of man for woman or of woman for 
children will never be known, for the tragedy was but of 
minutes. 



392 STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 

There was the sweep, the crush, the weak falling and 
the strong mounting, the inevitable desperate instinct 
which accompanies the grim law of self-preservation ; then 
the horror of flaming death behind and crushing death 
before ; then the still outreaching flames, and, finally, a 
mass of piled-up humanity, a few of the living above and 
the dead far below. 

JUMPED FROM GALLERIES TO CERTAIN DEATH. 

The details of the awful happenings inside have 
never been exceeded in the awfulness of sudden death in 
agony in all the history of modern times. From the bal- 
cony and galleries, where there was no more safety from 
fhe flame heat ascending than on the floor below, people 
hurled themselves downward in their terror. All, or nearly 
all, of those in the front met a fearful death. Firemen, 
the fire practically extinguished, found they were but 
pouring water on heaps of human beings. 

What scenes were found within the heated vault 
which had been a theatre very few of the firemen or police- 
men who first entered could explain intelligently. Some 
of them cried and some who did not cry could not talk of 
anything well. They knew only that they had found the 
passages to the theatre clogged in front, and upstairs and 
down, by bodies. 

Of this tragedy within, there will be many stories 
told by survivors in hysterical manner, but it will never 
be anything to them but five minutes of nerveless terror. 
The scenes that followed may be told by observers with 
more intelligence. 

The smoke poured from the building in thick masses 
and, penetrating through it, one saw the right marble 
staircase filled with a crush of human beings. There was 



STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 393 

a mute and awful silence. Arms were extended between 
bodies wbicli were heaped on one another. 

The crushed and bleeding head of a child was lying 
on the edge of the staircase and above were massed bodies 
of men and women. Small curls of steam and smoke 
arose from them. Then, as the work of carrying out the 
bodies followed, a pitiful cry arose occasionally in the 
mass, and this aroused the energetic aid of policemen and 
firemen combined. Bodies, scorched and lacerated were 
taken out by dozens. 

RESTAURANT TURNED INTO A MORGUE. 

Outside the theatre it seemed as if the great office 
buildings, the stores and restaurants had been emptied in 
a flash at the call of suffering humanity. There will never 
be such a scene in Thompson's restaurant again. Tables 
that had but a few hours before been surrounded by diners 
became slabs of a morgue. The scorched and smoking 
bodies were piled dozens deep, while dozens of physicians, 
carrying all their appliances, were rushing from one table 
to another to find one thread of life to relieve. 

It was a ghastly, horror-striking scene, and the very 
orderliness of it made it more ghastly ; it had occurred so 
suddenly, during the holiday season of a great city. 

Not less appalling and in a more dreadful though in 
a more quiet way, was the scene when the scores of dead 
were removed, some to their homes, but most to the morgue 
for identification. Policemen and firemen penetrated the 
gathered guards to carry away the dead not yet identified, 
and these comprised the majority. They came in such 
vehicles as they could force into service, and out from the 
extemporized morgue they carried the bodies of the dead. 
There were other morgues and there were other dead. 



394 STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 

The construction of the theatre is such that the 
space between the balcony and gallery seats and the stage 
is less than fifty feet. With the flimsy scenery of ' Mr. Blue 
Beard ' in flames, the draft from the stage to the many 
exits drew a solid sheet of fire on the fleeing spectators. 
To those in the front rows death was absolutely certain. 
As the exits became choked and the unfortunate victims 
were piled up ten and twelve deep, they formed an im- 
pregnable wall. With the flames lapping them from 
behind and the seething, fighting mass choking the door- 
ways, they were overcome. 

DESPERATE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE. 

How these poor unfortunates foaght to escape their 
terribly lacerated and scorched bodies showed after the 
fire. The failure of the asbestos drop curtain was the 
cause of the terrible loss of life. Had it worked, or had 
it been lowered, the flames would have been confined to 
the stage. 

Wh}'- the asbestos curtain was not lowered there 
seems to be no rational explanation. Some say it was 
lowered. Others say that it failed to work entirely. And 
still others claim that it reached within six or seven feet 
of the stage, and that the frantic efforts of the stage 
hands to drag it down failed. 

In the excitement it must have been forgotten en- 
tirely. The frantic rush to safety drove every idea out of 
the minds of all within the theatre and on the stage ex- 
cept that of personal safety. In the mad dash it was 
every one for himself The torn, bleeding, bruised, and 
blackened corpses bore silent testimony to the terrible 
conflict that must have been waged for a few minutes 
within the playhouse. 



Struggles to escape death. ^^^ 

The theatre was almost in darkness in the second 
act. The stage was lighted only by the soft artificial 
beams from the calcium, which lent beauty to the scene 
during the singing of ^ The Pale Moonlight ' by the dou- 
ble sextet. A flash of flame shot across through the 
flimsy draperies, started by a spark from the calcium. 
A show girl screamed hysterically. The singers stopped 
short, but with presence of mind the director increased the 
volume of the music. 

Scores rose in their seats as the stage manager 
shouted an order for the continuation of the song. It was 
obeyed with feeble hearts. The brave girls forced the 
words from their throats until two of their number swooned. 
The audience could no longer be controlled, and this 
added new horror to the ghastly spectacle. To a score of 
those who had sought to jump from the gallery the smoke 
was kind for it brought death more quickly. Their bodies 
were found hanging over the rail, their faces distorted with 
agonies of death. 

FIREMEN QUICK, BUT TOO LATE. 

From a dozen sources the alarm went to fire head- 
quarters, but before the vanguard of engines wheeled into 
Randolph street a dense crowd had gathered in front of 
the theatre. The firemen were quick to act, but hundreds 
of bodies were already motionless within the walls of the 
playhouse so recently opened. 

An awe-stricken crowd stood fixedly as those who had 
been nearest the doors rushed out, their eyes wide with 
fear. These yelled " Fire ! " at the top of their lungs, and 
the cry was taken up by the crowd and carried far into 
busy State street and the other avenues of commerce. 

None realized at that minute what had occurred. 



396 STRUGGI.ES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 

Bach man asked his neighbor if there had been loss of 
life or injury. Not until the first blackened and limp 
body was borne forth in the arms of a policeman did the 
enormity of the disaster begin to dawn on those in the 
street. 

In fifteen minutes nineteen dead bodies were carried 
out the Randolph street entrance. Then they came so 
fast that all count was lost. Mauy of those first brought 
out were still alive. Their pitiful moans struck terror to 
the hearts of those who witnessed the scene. 

AMBULANCES NOT ADEQUATE. 

Every hospital in the city hurried ambulances to the 
scene, and with them every surgeon v/ho could be spared. 
They were as nothing, though, compared to the need. 
Two and three, and in many cases even more, were hud- 
dled into the ambulances and hurried off to the hospitals, 
s./here kindlier attention could be given them. 

While the fire was still blazing fiercely in the rear of 
the playhouse the firemen had begun to carry out the 
corpses in front. None at that time could have been alive 
in the smoke-filled building, but the firemen fought on in 
their errand of mercy, gropinp- their way with lanterns 
that shed only a dim, yello-vv light through the clouds of 
smoke. 

The great majority of those who had occupied orch- 
estra seats had escaped with their lives, though scores 
were badly hurt in the rush. Some were knocked down, 
and, with broken limbs, were unable to rise. They had 
been left to die with a number of women who fainted from 
fright. With these bodies were found the corpses of those 
who had leaped from the balcony and gallery. 

In the exits of the balcony and galleries the greatest 



STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 397 

loss of life occurred. When the firemen went to remove 
the bodies they found one hundred or more piled in indes- 
cribable mass in each place. The clothes were torn com- 
pletely away from some of the bodies. Here and there a 
jeweled hand protruded from the pile. All the faces were 
distorted with the death agonies. 

MOAN FROM HEAP OF DEAD. 

From beneath this mangled mass of humanity there 
suddenly came the moan of a woman. It was a cry of 
anguish, not of pain. The cry, faint though it was, pierced 
to the very soul, sounding above the yells of the firemen, 
the moans of agony from within the smoke-filled auditori- 
um, and the shrieks of grief maddened fathers and moth- 
ers, sisters and brothers in the street without. 

Trembling hands plunged their way into the tangle 
of human forms, and with a niight}^ effort pulled to the 
surface the woman — could such a thing be a human being ? 
— from whose lips had come the cry. The blackened lips 
parted, and a fireman bent over her to catch the words. 

" My child, my poor little boy ! Where is he ? Oh, 
do bring him to me." 

There, in that awful hour, her baby bruised beyond 
recognition in the mad fight for life that followed the first 
flash of flame across the stage — there was mother love up- 
permost. Again the trembling lips parted. 

" Is he safe ? Tell me he is safe and I can die." 

'' He is safe," the fireman muttered, and all knew his 
reply was best. 

She died, and her body was lifted tenderly with those 
of the hundred others in that one spot. 

The calamit}^ was so overwhelming that the firemeu 
and the policemen who were the first to reach the upper 



398 STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 

parts of tHe house could not realize its astounding extent. 
They began by dragging a body or two from the terrible 
piles at the head of the stairways, a-s if they did not know 
the piles were made of humau bodies. 

Gradually the full significance of the catastrophe 
dawned upon them. All the lights of the theatre had 
been extinguished. The lanterns of the firemen cast only 
a dim glow over the piles of dead. From the bodies arose 
small curls of steam. The firemen had drenched the piles 
before they knew they were made up of human corpses, 

CARRYING A^A^AY THE VICTIMS. 

Then the work of taking out the inanimate forms be- 
gan. There were constant appeals for more help. The 
bodies of little children, torn and bleeding, were tenderly 
lifted, each by a fireman or policeman, and carried to the 
st-reet below. Two or three men were needed to bear away 
the heavier burdens. 

Every now and then a form faintly breathing was 
dragged out of the pile. These were handled with even 
more tenderness than the others as they were carried 
down the marble stairway of the gilded foyer. Now and 
then a faint groan was heard coming from the bottom of 
the pile. This was the signal for renewed and frantic 
efforts on the part of the rescuers to untangle the terrible 
human mass. 

As the struggle at the door progressed the first unfor- 
tunates who fell there were protected from suffocation and 
death by fire by the many layers of other bodies. This 
soon became apparent, and every effort was made to save 
the few who might still be alive at the bottom. 

In the balcony, scattered about the aisles and among 
the charred seats, were found many bodies. One mother, 



STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 399 

clasping her child, was found kneeling, as if in prayer, with 
her back to the stage, from which had come the death- 
dealing sheet of flame. She had protected her child from 
the flames, but the little one was dead in the charred arms 
of her mother. 

As the work of rescue progressed dozens of blankets 
were brought, and the bodies were carried down in these. 
The scene immediately after the fire was got under control 
and the work of rescue began was appalling. All the 
gilt and tinsel of the theatre, all the silks and plushes, 
all the rich hangings, all the frescoes had been wiped out. 
The flames from the stage had swept the entire theatre 
and left their blight everywhere. 

The upholstery on many of the seats was still intact, 
though. But for the failure of some one to act, when 
action meant life for hundreds, only a few might have 
perished. The thin sheet of asbestos that could have 
saved all, failed. 

BLENDING OF GRIEF AND JOY. 

In a remarkably short time, men whose wives and 
children had gone to see " Mr. Blue Beard,'' reached the 
scene. Their grief was pitiful. In that mass of people 
it was a hopeless task to find loved ones. Through the 
tiers of dead and dying in the buildings all about men 
and women searched with frenzied faces. Now and again 
a searcher would find one for whom he looked. One 
could but turn the face from such scenes. 

Strong men threw themselves in the street in their 
grief, or in temporary morgues clasped wife or child to 
their breasts. Alone with their dead many kneeled in 
prayer. In marked contrast was the meeting of those 
who had sought, with aching hearts, fearing their missing 



400 STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 

ones were dead. Their cries of joy at the reunions were 
mingled with the moans of the disconsolate. 

One man pushed his way into the lobby of the theatre. 
His eyes were blinded with fear and he did not see the 
firemen pass out with unconscious forms in their arms. 
Before a group of men he stood for a moment ; then asked 
if any one had been injured in the fire. 

" My wife and boy were there," he murmured. " Did 
every one get out? " 

Tears came to the eyes of the men in the little group. 
At that instant five firemen staggered down the stairs, 
each bearing a human form. One of the men pointed 
to them, and the husband and father fell to the floor. 

ESCAPE OF GIRL AGED ELEVEN, 

Amid even such sad scenes the pickpockets were busy. 
The police kept watch as best they could, but the ghouls 
snatched many purses from the dead and dying and 
wrenched rings from the fingers that could no longer offer 
resistance. Several of these men were caught in their 
dastardly work. They received at the moment punish- 
ment all too light for their crime. Only a few were 
arrested and taken to the police station, ^yhere they were 
held to await the course of the law. 

One of the narrow escapes in the first rush was that 
of little Winnie Gallagher, eleven years old. The child, 
who was with her mother in the third row from the stage, 
was abandoned in the mad rush for safety. She climbed to 
the top of the seat in which her mother had left her, and 
stepping from one chair to another, finally reached the door. 
There she was crushed in the crowd and all her outer 
garments were stripped from her. At the Central police 
station the child was restored to her mother. 



STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 401 

Mrs. William Mueller, was taken to tHe hospital suf- 
fering with severe injuries about the head, but upon 
regaining consciousness she sprang from the cot crying 
for her children. She had taken her two children, five and 
seven years old, to the theatre, and, after falling to the 
ground at the exit, she had lost consciousness and did not 
know what had been done with them. 

While the nurses were attempting to quiet the woman 
a police ambulance arrived at the hospital with the two 
little girls, one of whom had been injured about the head 
in a fall, while the other was unhurt. After clasping the 
children to her side Mrs. Mueller, once more lost con- 
sciousness. Florence Mueller, who was injured about the 
face and head, was taken to another ward for treatment. 

TELLS HER EXPERIENCES. 

Later in the evening Mrs. Mueller told of her exper- 
ience in the fire : " It all happened in a few minutes," she 
said in a weak voice as she drew the bandages from about 
her mouth. " I was in the waiting-room resting between 
the first and second acts. I returned to the auditorium 
when the second act opened and had been in my seat 
only a few minutes when a sheet of fire shot from the 
stage and was followed by confusion among the actors 
and actresses. The flame immediately spread to the 
hangings about the front of the stage and seemed to 
mount in an instant to the ceiling of the auditorium. 

" I grasped both of my girls and started for the front 
doors, but the people seemed orderly and we made good 
progress until I reached the exit. I can remember little 
else." 

One of the victims of the fire who escaped ^vith 
severe bruises was Mrs. F. A. Morgan. She, her little 

N.Y. 26 



402 STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 

son Warren, and lier sister, Miss Marcella Warren of 
Detroit, were in tHe first balcony. They noticed the 
smoke when the second act of the play was in progress. 
They left their seats among the first and had reached the 
vestibule when the rush began. They were thrown to 
the floor, and after being bruised and trampled on by the 
rush, Mrs. Morgan escaped. The little boy was wrenched 
from the crowd b_v his hair. His scalp was torn and his 
forehead was bruised. Miss Warren was not found. 

Rushing madly down the fire escape into the alley, 
enveloped in flames, D. A. Straton of Alpena, Michigan, 
and his two daughters, Gladys and Louise, fell insensible 
at the foot of the iron staircase. During his descent his 
daughters were torn from him, but were found later and 
taken to Thompson's restaurant, where, with the father, 
their burns were dressed. 

HELPS CHORUS GIRLS. 

ly. Day, residing at 5 Ashland Place, who occupied a 
seat near the front, did heroic work in rescuing several 
chorus girls who jumped from the stage when the fire 
broke out. Day escaped without a scratch, but his cloth- 
ing was literally torn from his body. 

" The second act had just started when sparks began 
to rain down from the top of the stage," said Day. " The 
curtain was immediately lowered, and some actor — I 
cannot recall who it was — stepped out from behind to 
assure the audience there was no danger. He had but 
uttered his first words when the whole stage seemed in 
flames. 

' ' The crowd began fighting frantically to gain the 
street, and hundreds were trampled to death or smothered. 
Everybody appeared to be fighting his or her way through 



STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 403 

the center aisle, and I had presence of mind enough to 
take one of the side passages- I managed to work my 
way to the door twice with two women, but could do no 
more, and barely saved myself." 

EACH FOR HIMSELF. 

Charles Thompson, who was in the third balcony when 
the fire broke out, gave a graphic description of the panic 
which followed the first wild rush for the exists. 

*' I was in the front row of the balcony when the 
stampede occurred," said Thompson. " I had a full view 
of the lower part of the house, and could see the people 
climbing over each other to gain exit to the street and 
alle3^ The sight was horrible. Children were crushed 
beneath the feet of strong men, and women threw up 
their arms and fell helplessly to the floor. 

" Nobod}^ seemed to try to help anybody but himself 
or herself. Several women and j^oung girls, as near as I 
could see in the great confusion and smoke, leaped from 
the balcony to the lower floor, and w^ere literally crushed 
upon the backs of seats. It all occurred in an instant, 
and I hardly know how I escaped myself. Fighting my 
way and simply crawling over the heads and backs of 
others, I gained exit through one of the windows and slid 
to the street." 

Thompson said he could not tell positively how the 
fire started. He says sparks began falling from the upper 
part of the stage and flames immediately shot forth in the 
form of an explosion, although there was no report. 

Soon after the first alarm of fire was sounded a crowd, 
headed by J. W. McMeen, a Board of Trade clerk, rushed 
into the alley behind the theatre and ascended the " drop 
staircase " fire-escape leading into the burning building. 



404 STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 

The great irou doors were evidently caught on the out- 
side and held the prisoners within. McMeen was first to 
reach the top of the fire-escape, and, tugging frantically at 
the massive sheets of iron, finally forced them open. 

A stream of humanity then poured forth with such 
great force that the victims were thrown to the ground in 
dozens. The screams and shrieks of women and children 
were heartrending. A mass of dead and dying were 
piled high in the alley, forming a human mattress for the 
stream of persons who followed. McMeen escaped by 
sliding down the balustrade. 

MISS HAZEL COULTER'S STORY. 

Miss Hazel Coulter, the eighteen-year-old daughter of 
John Coulter, was one of the first to escape from the build- 
ing. She was knocked down and trampled upon after 
reaching Couch place, on the north side of the theatre, 
but sustained no serious injury. 

" I was sitting in the fifth row of seats, near the north 
side of the theatre, when the fire broke out," said Miss 
Coulter in telling of her escape. " When the curtain 
lifted on the second act I saw a few tiny wreaths of smoke 
curling out from between the curtains and a few seconds 
later fire began falling to the stage. The costumes of 
many of the women on the stage caught fire, the play 
stopped suddenly, and for just an instant everything was 
deathly quiet. Then the people on the stage began run- 
ning madly toward the wings. 

" The whole audience seemed to scream at once and 
began fighting in the aisles and climbing over the seats. 
The ushers hurriedly threw open the doors leading to the 
alley and scores of people surged through ihe exits. 
Before I could run the twenty-five feet between my seat 



STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE DEATH. 40o 

and the exit the whole stage was afire and the screams 
and wails of the terror-stricken audience were deafening. 

" When I leaped from the doorway, which was several 
feet above the ground, I fell upon several persons and was 
in turn fallen upon by others who followed me. As soon 
as I fell, several medical students grabbed me and pulled 
me out of the way.'' 

The Sherman House was thrown open to fire victims 
by Manager Abe Frank, and all the injured taken in were 
provided with rooms and medical attention. Thirteen 
injured persons were cared for at this hotel. 

The first victims taken to the hotel were H. H. Ches- 
ter, wife and two children, who were severely burned about 
the head and body. After an examination the attending 
physicians said they would recover. H. S. Van Ingine 
and wife were severely burned and covered with blood 
when taken into the hotel, and their condition was critical. 

From early evening until long after midnight Rol- 
ston's morgue was besieged and overrun by hundreds of 
heartbroken men and women seeking friends or relatives. 
Lying so closely packed together upon the floor in the 
basement of the morgue and in an empty store adjoining 
that no room was left for a passageway were the charred 
and mutilated bodies of 183 of those who had met their 
deaths in the fire. 

It was 9 o'clock before the policemen detailed to the 
work of removing from the dead every possible mark of 
identification had completed their grewsome task. Not 
until then were the griefstricken people who clamored 
piteously for admittance allowed to enter and search for 
their dead. In batches of a dozen at a time they were 
permitted to file down between the long rows of bodies 
stretched out upon the floor. 



THE 



IROQUOIS THEATRE FIRE 



CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, DECEMBER 30, 1903. 



LIST OF VICTIMS 



COMPILED BY 
JOHN K. TRAKGKR, 

CORONER OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS, 

FOR CITY OF CHICAGO. 
407 



408 LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 

Name. Age. Residence. Occupation. Identified by. 

Adamek, Mrs. Joiin 40...Bartlett, 111 Housewife R. H. Ostrander. 

Aldridge, Luella M'D....44...792 W. Monroe St., City Housewife Geo. A. Aldridge, 

Alexander, Boyer 4J^...473 Washington Boul., City (Infant) W. G. Alexander. 

Alexander, Lulu B 86...473 Washington Boul., City Housewife W. G. Alexander 

Alexander, Melba 8. ..473 Washington Bonl., City Student W. G. Alexander. 

Alfson, Albert 81... Woodstock, 111 B. Mechanic. Alex. Alfson. 

Allen, Mary 8 27...5546 Drexel Ave., City Housewife Edward F,. Allen, 

Anderson, Annie 29. ..2141 Jackson Boul., City Domestic Nils A.Larson. 

Anderson, Ragua 89...229 Gi'and Ave., City Scrub Wom'nlda Anderson. 

Andrews, Henrietta 33....943 W. Superior St., City Nurse D. A. Orth, M. I). 

Annan, Margaretha 30. ..299 Webster Ave., City Milliner Chas. J. Peck. 

Austrian, Walter J 17... 4175 Drexel Boul., City Student Benj. R. Cahn. 

Bagley, Helen Dewey... 18. ..24 Madison Park, City Student Jno.F. Mahoney. 

Baker, Adelaide 17...4410 Ellis Ave., City Student Chas. C. Landt. 

Banshaf, George 80.. .4847 Forrestville Ave., City Electrician Marie Thompson, 

Barker, Ethel M 14. ..1925 Washington Boul., City Harry J. Barker' 

Barnheisel,Chas. H 42....4400 Grand Boul., City Solicitor E. I. Dresher. 

Barry, Wilma Porter... 17. ..4830 Greenwood Ave., City. ..Student F. E. Barry. 

Eartlett, Alvina 83....West Grossdale, 111 Housewife Wm. Bartlett. 

Bartlett, Arthur 6... West Grossdale, HI Student Wm. Bartlett. 

Bartlett, Mrs. C. D 40...Bartlett Station, 111 Housewife R.H. OstrandeT. 

Bartlett, Emma 13. ..West Grossdale, HI Student Wm. Bartlett. 

Bartsch, Wm. C. H 24...829 Hudson Ave., City, N. Circulator Hugo Bartsch. 

Battenfield, John W 24. ..Ohio Electrician D. H. Battenfield 

Battenfield, Robert M... 16. ..Delaware, Ohio Student D. H. Battenfield 

Battenfield, Ruth A 22... Delaware, Ohio Student D. H. Battenfield 

Battenfield, Sarah A.... 51. ..Delaware, Ohio Housewife D. H. Battenfield 

Bell, Miss Pet Mirla 65. ..3000 Michigan Ave., City None J. J. Keating. 

Beutel, William 38...EnglewoodAv.,nr. Halsted Lumber R. Heinrich. 

Berg, MissHilmaM 39. ..408 W. 111th St., City Housewife Frank Berg. 

Berg, Olga 13. ..408 W. 111th St., City Student Frank Berg. 

Berg, Victor 11. ..408 W. 111th St., City Student Frank Berg. 

Bergch, Annie 82...4926 Cham plain Ave., Clty...Housewife Arthur Bergch. 

Bergch, Jr., Arthur Jas 11. ..4926 Champlain Ave., City. ..Student Arthur Bergch. 

Berry, Emma 19. ..Battle Creek, Mich None Katy Smith. 

Berry, Margaret 25. ..286 Lincoln Ave., City Housewife Katy Smith. 

Berry, Otto 26. ..Battle Creek, Mich Farmer Katy Smith. 

Beyer, Grace 4. ..1040 Diversey Boul., City Fred Melsner. 

Beyer, Minnie 80. ..1010 Diversey Boul., City Housewife Fred Meisner. 

Beyer, Otto 38. ..Diversey Boul., City Waiter W. J. Kluehe. 

Bezenak. Joseph 83... West Superior, Wis Superint'nd't Geo. Mackay. 

Bezenak, Mrs. Nellie... 40. ..West Superior, Wis Housewife Geo. Mackay. 

Blckford, Glen 17... Rogers Park, 111 Student W. Whitaker. 

Bickford, Helen 16. ..Rogers Park, 111 Student E. R. Neely. 

Blegler, Susan M 27... 6518 Minewa Ave., City Teacher Philip Biegier. 

Bird, Miss Marian 64...Eola, 111 None R. H. Ostrander. 

Blsslnger, Walter 15... 4934 Forrestville Ave., City Student EliB. Felsenthal. 

Blackman, Ethel 18...Glenview, 111 Student W.J. Smeal, 

Bliss, Harold S 23... Racine, Wis Dent.Student W. H. Raymond. 

Blum, Mrs. Rose 30. ..4226 Vincennes Ave., City.. ..Housewife H. E. Goldberger. 

Boettcher, Mrs. N. H.... 32. ..4140 Indiana Ave., City Housewife O. F. Boettcher. 

Bogg, Mary L IS. ..6938 Wentworth Ave., City. ..Student C. F. Atkinson. 

Boice, Bessie S 16. ..,5721 Rosalie Ct., City None JohnC. liolce. 

Bolce, William H 51...,5721 Rosalie Ct., City Salesman lohn C. Boice. 

Bolce, Mrs. W. H 49...5721 Rosalie Ct., City Housewife John C. Boice. 



LIST OF VICTOIS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 409 

Name. Age. Residence. Occupation. Identified by. 

Bolte, Lenda W 14.. .Lakeside, 111 Student Jno. H, Willard. 

Bond, Lucille 10. ..Hart, Mich Student Geo. Mackay. 

Botsford, Mabel A 21. ..Racine, Wis O F. Botsford. 

Bowman, Beatrice M... ;^1...20 Chalmer PI., City None B. K. Jenks. 

Bowman, Josephine 50...20 Chalmer PL, City None B. F. Jenks. 

Bowman, Lucien 9. ..20 Chalmer PI., City Student B. F. Jenka. 

Brennan, Jas. F P Il...(i08 Fulton St. (W.), City Student P. G. Brennan 

Brennan, Margaret 40. ..608 W. Fulton St., City Housewife Geo. Scannell. 

Brewster, Mary Julia... 25. ..116 E. 3Ist St., City L. H. Brewster. 

Bein, Herman 18...266 E. Division St., City School Boy Adolph' Beln. 

Brinsley, Emma L 29. ..909 Jackson Boul., City Housewife C. M. Owens. 

Browne, Hazel Grace... 14. ..823 Wilson Ave., City S'd'ntSt. M'y. 

Convent, So. 

Bend, Ind T. C. N6wman, 

Buehrmann, Margaret. 12. ..46 E. 53d St., City Student E. K. Robinson. 

Burk, Bertha 45. ..911 W. Monroe St., City Dressmaker. ..Jno. Coughlin. 

Burnslde, Esther 59. ..437 E. 64th St., City Housewife C. W. Burnside. 

Buscherah, Louise A 12... 1810 Wellington Ave., City.. Student O. W. Brecher. 

Butler, Bennett F 14. ..649 Michigan Av, Evanston..Student C. F.Forbes. 

Butler, Mrs. L. E 51. ..649 Michigan Av, Evanston..Hou8ewife C. F. Forbes. 

Byrne, Consilla 16. ..616 W. 15th St., City Student Mary Byrne. 

Byrne, Mary 34. ..879 Kedzie Ave., City None Kath'rlne Kyrn*. 

Caldwell, Robt. Porter.. 15... 4868 Morgan St., St. Louis Student W. B. Harrison. 

Cantwell, Ella M 46...7;« W. Adams St., City Housewife T. A. CantwelL 

Caville, Arthur 24. ..54 26th St., New York Actor Louis B. Foley. 

Chapin, Agnes H 25. ..4458 Berkely Ave., City Teacher W. S. Chapln. 

Chapman, Bessie 19. ..Cedar Rapids, Iowa Student H.C. Richardson. 

Chapman, Nina 28. ..Cedar Rapids, Iowa Stenogr'pher..H. C. Richardson. 

Christian, Henrietta 18. ..445 W. 65th St., City None W. A. Douglass. 

Christopher, Miss Bell.. 55...Decorah, Iowa Nurse Mrs. C. Lott. 

Christopher.son, Mrs. M .3.5. ..231 N Harvey Ave, Oak Pk.. Housewife R. H. Beuckman. 

Clarke, Edward D 50.. .6432 Lexington Ave., City. . Insurance Geo. A. Maclean. 

Clay, Susan 1 47...6409 Monn e Ave., City Idella Furman. 

Clayton, John Vinton... I3...5;i5 Morse Ave., Cit.y Student F. W. Clayton. 

Clingen, Bessie E 14...291 So. Ashland Ave., City. ..School girl Wm.C. Clingen. 

Cogans, Mrs.Margareth 26. ..5904 Normal Ave.. City Housewife Thos. Grace. 

Cohen, Mary 52...222 Ogden Ave.. Citj Housewife Herman Cohen. 

Cooke, Sadie 23...943 W. Superior St., City Nurse Geo. E. Cooke. 

Cooper, Chas. F 38... Kenosha, "Wis S'p'r'nt'nd'nt.G. H. Curtis. 

Cooper, Helene 2:^...Lena, 111 Court Clerk. ..R. M. White. 

Cooper, Willis W 60... Kenosha, Wis Gen. Manger Thos. Hansen. 

Corbln, Louise .37...6938 Wentworth Ave., (;ity..Hou.sewife C. B. Hinckley. 

Corbln, Norman W 9. ..69.'i8 Wentworth Ave., City ..Student V. V. Corbln. 

Corbln, Vernon W 10. ..6938 Wentworth Ave., City..Student C.B.Hinckley. 

Corcoran, Flossie 22.. .218 Dearborn Ave., City St'd'nt Muslc.J. E. Harris. 

Coutts, Robt. H :^...1616 Wabash Ave., City C'gr Business. W. J. CoMtts. 

Crocker, Millie J 48...3730 Lake Ave., City Teacher Geo. E. Cook. 

Cummings, Miss Irene 18...5185 Madison Ave., City Student R. P\ Gumming*. 

Danner, H 58...Burlington, Iowa Rt'd Druggist.Geo. Taylor. 

Danson, Teresa Mae 25.. .Pullman, 111 Housewife Jas. P. Danson. 

Davy, Mrs. Elizabeth... 5.3. ..34 Roslyn PI., City Housewife Marg. Peterson. 

Davy, Helen Louise 16.. 34 Roslyn PI., City Student T. W. Taylor. 

Dawson, <i nice 5...3.'M N. Haifilng Ave., City Wm. T. Daws .<, 

DawBon, Mary Jane .'>o...Barrlngi»>u, 111 Housewife Wm. T. Daw ... 



410 LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 

Name. Age. Residence. Occuaation. Tdantifled by. 

Day, Sarah (Colored)... 65... Delaware, Ohio Dom'tlc Ohlo.J. F. Dodd. 

Decker, Kate K 68...3237 Groveland Ave., City ...Housewife Carl. D. Kinsey. 

Decker, Mamie K 83...8237 Groveland Ave., Clty...Hou8ekeep'r ..Richard C. Knox. 

Decker, Myron A 65...8237 Groveland Ave., City. ..Lawyer Carl. D. Kinsey. 

Dee, Edward 7. ..8183 Wabash Ave., City Student John Gee. 

Delee, Viola 23...7822 Union Ave., City None M.J. Deelee. 

De Vine, Clara 80. ..2.59 La Salle Ave., City A. J. Reese. 

Devlne, Margaret 22...95 Kemball St., City At'd Theatrc.N. Christopher. 

Dee, Margaret L 2...31.33 Wabash Ave., City Wm. Dee. 

Dickhut, Minnie M 28...Quincy, 111 Milliner Ed. Cooney. 

Dickie, Edith 619 W.65th Place, City Teacher J. H. Brayton. 

Dlffenderfer, Leander J 16. ..Lincoln, 111 Student Grace Strong. 

Dlngfelder, Winifred E 18...Jonesvllle, Michigan Student F. Dlngfelder. 

Dixon, Edna H 9...100Flournoy St., City Student A.Z.Dixon. 

Dixon, Anna H 43...100Flournoy St., City Housewife A. Z. Dixon. 

Dixon, Leah 16.. 100 Flournoy St., City Student A. Z. Dixon. 

Dodd, Mrs. J. F 46.. .Delaware, Ohio Housewife ....J. F. Dodd. 

Dodd, Ruth 18... Delaware, Ohio Student J. F. Dodd. 

Doerr, Lillian 16. ..4924 Champlain Ave., City...Student Wm. P. Doerr. 

Domann, Emma 21. ..559 LaSalle Ave., City Domestic C. F. Domann. 

Donaldson, Clara E 42... 4585 Indiana Ave., City..„ Hou.sewife F. L. Donaldson. 

Donohue, Mary E 18...1040 W.Taylor St Student Thos. Donohue. 

Dotts, Margaret S 82...188 N. Elizabeth St., City Housewife W. A. Dott. 

Dow,. Florence 17...642 W. 60th St., City Student F.H.Dow. 

Dowst, Jennie W 44...927Hlnman Ave.,Evanston..Housewife B. C.jBlowney. 

Dreisel, Mrs. Clara 80...N. Robey & Potomac Ave... Teacher „Max Wolfl". 

Dreisel, Herman 89 . 697 N. Robey St., City Teacher Max Wolff 

Drlden, Birdie T 28. ..5809 Washington Ave.,City ..Housewife John Dryden. 

Dryden, Taylor 12. ..5809 Washington Ave., City..Student John Dryden. 

Duboys, Mrs. Arthur.... 25....38>^ Oregon Ave., City Housewife A. J. M. Nalis. 

Duval, Mrs. Elizabeth.. 45...498Fullerton Ave.. City Dr. H.J. Combs. 

Duvall, Sarah 9...Zanesvllle, Ohio Student J. W. Pinkerton. 

Dyrenforth, Helen 9...Evanston, 111 Student A. Dyrenforth. 

Dyrenforth, Ruth 14...Evanston, 111 Student A. Dyrenforth. 

Dawson, Nellie 26...Barrington, 111 Teacher Wm. Dawson. 

Eisendratb, Natalie 8. ,10 Crilly Ct., City Student Jos. A. Berger. 

Ebbert, John H 48...5516 Marshfleld Ave., City...Shoedealer. ...Harry J. Ebbert. 

Ebbert, Mrs. J. H 48...5516 Marshfleld Ave., Clty...Housewife Harry J. Ebbert. 

Ebersteln, Elizabeth 43. ..84 E.26thSt„ City Housewife Jennie Brown. 

Eberstein, Frank B 19...84 E. 26th St., City Carr'geTrmr.J. G. Ebersteln. 

Edwards, Caroline M 42.. .Clinton, Iowa Housewife W. A. Edwards. 

Edwards, Marjorie 14... Clinton, Iowa Student W. A. Edwards. 

Eger, Miss Sabine 27...3760 Indiana Ave., City Teacher Emil Eger. 

'Eisendratb, Ettie 86. ..10 Crilly Place, City Housewife J. L. Eisendratb. 

Eisensteadt, Herbert 8 16...4549 Forrestville Ave.,City...None M. Bisensteadt. 

Eldrldge, Harry « 17...Mattoon, 111 Student H. Messer. 

Eldrldge, Monte 24...6063 Jefferson Ave., City Conductor H. Messer. 

Elkan, Rose 14...8434So. Park Ave., City Student MarkElkan. 

Ellis, Annie 45...207 E. 62d St., City Housewife Bert L. Ellis. 

Ellis, Lottie 26...Grainville, Mich Clerk J. N. Ellis. 

Engels, Miss Minnie 86...73 Dawson Ave., City None M. H. Engels, 

Engels, William 7...78 Dawson Ave., City Student M. H. Engels. 

Erland, Alma 24...8;32 Judson Ave.,Evanston...Servant O.Anderson. 

Ernst. Rosina 11. ..202 24th Place, City Student Frieda E. PauL 

Bepen, KmU 81...190 Osgood St., City Mer. Tailor.... W. Lederer. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HOMROR. 411 

Name. Age. Jtemdefiice. Occupation. Identified by. 

EspcD, Rosa 23....305 Osgood St., City None { w^ ^letuer" 

i*slg, Tyrone 17....2;39 W. 66th St., City Student J, P. Prlmiey. 

Evans, Mattie 42...Q,ulncy, 111 Housewife A. J. Reese. 

Fahey, Mary .25...4860 Klmbark Ave, City Waitress T. H. Fahey. 

Fair, Ella M 52...756tI Bond Ave., City Teacher Geo. A. Fair. 

Fair, Maria A 56.. .7564 Bond Ave., City Ex-teacher Geo. A. Fair. 

Falk, Gertrude 20. ..8889 Elmwood Ave., City Housekeeper J. P. Falk. 

Falkensteln, Gertrude....80...7214 LaFayette Ave., City Teacher H. O. Deuss. 

Fellman, Herman 87....'?113 Vernon Ave., City Contractor Adolph P'ellra'n 

Fleser, Matle A 88.. .793 N. Springfield Ave., Clty.Housewlfe Harry A.Fleser. 

Finch, Jennie 22...Klrksvine, Mo Teacher R. A. Loucka. 

Fltzglbbon, Anna G 17...2954 Michigan Ave., City Student G. J. M'Caiub'ge. 

Fltzglbbon, John J 18.. .2954 Michigan Ave., City Student G. J.McCanib'ge 

Fitzpatrlck, Miss G 27. ...525 W. Monroe St., City Domestic Geo. E.Shlpman 

Flannagan, Thomas J....24...34th and State Sts., City Machinist Lottie Flanagan 

Foltz, Helen 14. ..1886 Dlversey St., City Student John T. Reedy. 

Folice, Nellie 22...301 Claremont Ave., City Housewife Frank Follce. 

Folke, Ada E 21...Berwyn, 111 Tel. Op'r Chas. D. Folke. 

Foltz, Alice 16... 1886 Dlversey St., City Student John T. Reedy. 

Foltz, Mrs. Mary 41. ..1886 Dlversey St., City Housewife John T. Reedy. 

Forbes, Mary J 25. ..244 Oakwood Boul., City Domestic Rita Forbes. 

Foltz, Mrs. Fannie T 38...928 Hlnman Ave., City Houpewlfe Walter P. Marsh 

Fort, Phoebe Irene 45...146 86th St., City Principal J. E. Swartz. 

Fowler, Elva 17...8450 W. 63d PI., City Student Henry J. Smith. 

Fox, Mrs. ¥. Morton .86...Wlnnetka, 111 Housewife Graeme .Stewart 

Fox, William Hoyt 13...Wlnnetka, 111 Student GraemeStewart 

Fox, Emelle 9... Wlnnetka, 111 Student GraemeStewart 

Fox, Geo. S 16.. .Wlnnetka, 111 Student GraemeStewart 

Frady, Leon 10. ..4356 Forrestvllle Ave,, City ..Student J. U. Sprindler, 

Frady, Lillian M 29. ..4856 Forrestvllle Ave., Clty..Housewlfe J. U. Sprindler, 

Frandsen, Elna 24. ..Wlnnetka, 111 Servant Geo. Rasraesent 

Frazler, M D. Holbrook. 85. ..Aurora, 111 „..Hou.sewlfe C. H. Hobrook. 

Freckelton, Edith 2-S....56;32 Peoria St., City None Geo. E. P'lorey. 

Freckelton, Ella 17....5aj2 Peoria St., City Student Geo. E. Florey. 

Freer, Jennie E. Christy 58....Galesburg, 111 Housewife F. A. Freer. 

FrledrichB, Helen .8.5....311 Center St., City Housewife Mlch.Frledrlchs 

Gahan, Josephine 17....Wentw'th & GarfleldB'lCityStudent James Clark. 

Gam, Jr., Frank 11....&S1 W. Monroe St., City Student F. H. WolfT, 

Gam, Mrs. Lucy 831 W. Monroe St., City Housewife F. H. Wolff. 

Gam, William 9....8;^1 W. Monroe St., 'Jlty Student F. H. Wolft'. 

Gartz, Barbara Jane 4....4860 Klmbark Ave., City R. T. Crane, Jr. 

Gartz, Mary Dorothea 12.. 4860 Klmbark Ave., City Student R. T. Clane, Jr. 

Geary, Pauline 25...4627 Indiana Ave., City Teacher W. V. Geary. 

Greenwald, Leroy W 10...583 E. Bryon St., City Student F.R.Greenwald. 

Geik, Emily, .38....781 Fullerton. Ave., City Dressmaker... L. C. Gelk. 

Gerow, Mabel Redruth....34....Wlunetka, 111 Companion. ...R. L. Greeley. 

Gibbs, Mary W 48....4602 Calumet Ave., City Boar'h'seKp'rGeo. A.Webber. 

Goerk, Dora 20....ia^0 Byron St., City Dressmaker ....Henry G.Goerk. 

Goolsby, Vera 16.. .10 Oakland Crescent, Clty....Student H. A. Badger. 

Goss, Methllda »5....243 Grace St., City Housewife Jos. J. Goss. 

Gould, Benjamin E 32.. .Elgin, Hi Court Clerk ...F. L. Gould. 

Goold, Pearl 28....Elgln, 111 Housewife P. L. Gould. 

Gravee, Clara C 26...r.a W. Chicago Ave,, Clty.....HousewUe A. Geadelwler. 



412 LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 

Name. Age. Residence. Occupation. Identified by. 

Graff, Margaret 62....BloorQington, 111 Housewife R. Graff. 

Green wald, Lula M 82...533 Byron St., City Housewife F, R. Grcenwald. 

Gudehus, Sophia 6....827 N. Ashland Ave., City Student H. F. Gudehus. 

Guerrieri, Jennie 12....185 N. Sangamon St., City Student Mich. Guerrierl. 

Gustafson, Alma 10...8o3 Ave. N, So. Chicago Teacher Oscar Wolff. 

Guthardt, Adelaide 41....159 113th St., City Housewife John Gutliardt. 

Guthardt, Lidya 15....159 W. llSthSt., City Student John Guthardt. 

Hall, Kmery M 58... Vermont Bldg., 53d & Cot- 
tage Grove Ave., City Musician Anson L. Bolte. 

Harbaugh, Harriet 84...6653 Harvard Ave., City L. C. Stafford. 

Harbaugh, Mary E 30. ..6653 Harvard Ave., City Teacher L. C. Stafford. 

Hanson, Anna B 21. ..Gibson City, 111 Teacher Nels. Hanson. 

Hansen, Nancy 10... Granville, Mich Student J. N. Ellis. 

Hart, Elizabeth 22...803 Dempster St., Evanston.. Bookkeeper...Charles S. Hart. 

Hart, Nellie E 84. ..Rock Island, 111 Housewife John English. 

Hartman, John Steve.. 22...5705 S. Halsted St., City Machinist And. R.Hartman 

Hayes, Frank B 22...Janesville, Wis Merchant Dennis Hayes. 

Helms, Otto 37. ..77 Maple St., City Musician Walter Helm. 

Hennessey, William .... 14. ..4411 Calumet Ave., City Student William Doliard. 

Henning, Charles 6. ..5748 Prairie Ave., City Student E. Henning. 

Henning, Edwin 11...5743 Prairie Ave., City Student E. Henning. 

Henning, Emely J 41...5743 Prairie Ave., City Housewife M. A. Carpenter. 

Henning, William 14...5743 Prairie Ave., City Student E. Henning. 

Henry, MaryAlda Freer 26. ..1198 Wilton Ave., City Housewife Guy A. Henry. 

Hensley, P'lora A 35...Logansport, Ind Housewife Guy Hensley. 

Hensley, Frances M 5...Logansport. Ind Guy Hensley. 

Hensley, Genevieve 10...Logansport, Ind Student Guy Hensley. 

Herger, Bertha 22...Hammond, Ind Domestic. .. Mrs. T. Wiedemann 

Herich, Mary 18. ..7540 Lake Ave., City Servant Jan. Svehla. 

Herron, Bessie h 20. ..Hammond, Ind None J. C. Herron. 

Hewins, Emery G 61. ..Petersburg, Ind W. S. Moore. 

Hewins, Mrs. Sarah 60... Petersburg, Ind Housewife W. S. Moore. 

Hickman, Mrs. Charles 24...4743 Calumet Ave., City Housewife H. H. Steere,M.D, 

Higglnson, Janette B.... 26... Winnetka, 111 None P. D. Sexton. 

Higglnson, Roger G 9... Winnetka, 111 Student Paul D. Sexton. 

Hippach,L. Archibald.. 12. ..2928 Kenmore Ave., City Student A. A. Nachtway. 

Hlppach, Robert A 14. ..2928 Kenmore Ave., City Wm. H. West. 

Hire, Eva M 15. ..613 W. 61st PI., City Student Chas. A. Mayo. 

Henning, James 5. ..5743 Prairie Ave., City Schoolboy James Henning. 

Hoffeins, Adeline J. C... 24.. .292 Haddon Ave., City Teacher Peter H. Hoffeins 

Holland, John H 60...Des Moines, Iowa Merchant W. F. Wilson. 

Holm, Miss Hulda 24.. .176 Northwestern Av., City.. None Percy E. Douglas 

Holmes, Minnie 53...6743 Yale Ave., City Housewife John Holmes. 

Hoist, Allan B 12...2088 W. Van BurenSt., City.Student Wm. M. Hoist. 

Hoist, Amy 7. ..2088 W. Van Buren St„ City.Student Wm. M. Hoist. 

Hoist, Gertrude M 10...2088 W. Van Buren St., City.Student Wm. M. Hoist. 

Hoist, Mary W 36.. .2088 W. Van Buren St., City.Housewife....Wm. M. Hoist. 

Hoyland, Leigh 13...81 Humboldt Boul., City Student J. P. Hoyiand. 

Howard, Helen 17...6565 Yale Ave., City Student Fred R. Mitchell 

Howard, Mary E 54. ..3812 Prairie Ave,, City Housewife Frank Howard. 

Hrody, Anna 88. ..1353 S. 40th Ave., City Housewife Jos. F. Halik. 

Hull,Dwight 7...244 0akwood Boul., City Student E. S. Gregory. 

Hudl, Donald 9. ..244 Oakwood Boul., City Student J. H. MacDonald 

Hull, Helen 10...244 Oakwood Boul., City Student J. H. MacDonalcl 

^VtUj Mrs i»|arianueK. 82.. .244 Oakwood Boul,, City Housewife ,...,E, S. Gregory, 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 413 

Name. Age. Residence. Occupation. Identified by. 

HutcMns, Florence 22...Waukegan, 111 Teacher E. L. Hutchlns. 

Harbaugh, Harriet E.... 34....Savannah, 111 Teacher L. C. Stafford. 

Irle, Mabel Wiley 31. ..12-10 Lawrence Ave., City Housewife Asher Kossetler 

Jacobson, Pauline 28....432 Superior St., City Housewife Alfred Jacobson. 

Jackson, V'lva R 18....2J6N.HumboldtBoul., City ...Student Jas. C. Jackson. 

James, Charles I) 41.... Davenport, Iowa Cha.s. B. James. 

Jones, Mrs. Annie C o6...46 E. 5Sd St., City Housewife Warner E. Jones 

Kaufman, Alice 5... Hammond, Ind Carl Kaufman. 

Kennedy, Agnes R 28.. .6528 Ross Ave., City Teacher John J. Foley. 

Kennedy, Francis E 31. ..6528 Ross Ave., City Teacher John J. Foley. 

Kennedy, Katie H 38...Freeport, 111 Housewife A. C. Kennedy. 

Kennedy, Margaret B... 21. ..Austin, 111 Housewife D. E. Kennedy. 

Kercher, Mrs. Francis.. 22. ..439 E. 38th St., City Housewife Schoondermark. 

Kidwell, Olle 45...Martlnsburg, Ohio Dressmaker.. .J. F.Dodd. 

Kiely, Harry M 26.. .St. Loul.s, Mo Teacher Jos. Kiely. 

Knapp, Rena, E 19... Harvard, 111 Robert Knapp. 

Kochems, Augusta 38.. .262 Warren Ave., City Housewife MarkO. Juckniea 

Kochems, Jacob A 17. ..262 Warren Ave., City F. C Kochems. 

Koehler, Mamie 15... Washington Heights, 111 Student Albert Polzln. 

Koll, NoraZ 49. ..496 Ashland Boul., City Housewife Charles Koll. 

Kranz, Sarah Ann 47... Racine, Wis Housewife .....Herbert E.Jlllson 

Kuebler, Lola B 16. .. 724 E. 50th St., City Student Geo. J. Kuebler. 

Kulas, Georgina 27. ..349 Chestnut St., City Housewife C. J. Renshaw. 

Kwasnlewskl, John 25. ..122 Cleaver St., City A. Kwasniewskl. 

Lake, Mrs. Alfred 60.. .278 Belden Ave., City Housewife Geo. B. Canfleld. 

Lange, Agnes 14. ..1632 Barry Ave,, City Student Louis Lange. 

Lange, Herbert H.J 16...1632 Barry Ave., City Draftsman ....Louis Lange. 

La Rose, Josephine 1...833 N.Clark St., City Student J. N. La Rose. 

La Rose, Laura 12...a33 N. Clark St., City Student W. A. Chipln. 

La Rose, Matilda 10.. .833 N. Clark St., City Student J. N. La Rose. 

Lawrence, Miss Ella W. 23...922S. Sawyer Ave., City Teacher |^'*" ''^<'*i'""^'**"'- 

I Henry Tibblts. 

Leach, Francis A 51...5747 Drexel Ave., City Seamstress .,..Leander Maddox 

licaton, Fred W 24. ..City Student W. Hamburgher. 

Leavenworth, Mr.s. C.F. 45... Decatur, 111 Housewife L. Leavenworth. 

Lefmann,Mrs. Susie S8...Laporte, Ind Housewife F. M. Burdick. 

Lehman, Frances M.... 24...525N. Austin Ave., City Teacher Mllo B. Lehman. 

Lemenager, Jessie :^...23 Waveland Ct., Cltv f Elina Graves. 

( K. G. Pound. 

Lemenager, Dorothy M. 13...2;i Waveland Ct., City Student H.V. Lemenager. 

Lemenager, Wallace.... 8.. .23 Waveland Ct., City Elma Graves. 

Levenson, Rosle 28.. .268 Ogden Ave., City Housewife W. C. Levenson. 

Linden, Eleanor E 21. ..4625 Lake Ave., City Student F. W. Linden. 

Livingston, Daisy E 24. ..273 Oakwood Boul., City Teacher l'^' I-'^^'lngstone. 

{ Dr. Livingstone 

Long, Helen 14. ..Geneva, 111 Student E. P. Luthardt. 

Long, Katheryne 9. ..Geneva, 111 Student F. H.Blackman. 

Long, Marlon P 12...Geneva, 111 Student E. P. Luthardt. 

Love, Marguerite M 19. ..Woodstock, 111 Clerk Chas.A. Uonnlng. 

Lowltz, Mildred H 22. ..Keokuk, Iowa Housewife Natha*iS.Lowita. 

Ludwig, Eugene 18...1]3Circle .\v.,Norw'd Pk.Ill.Housekeeper.Sarab Jullen. 

Ludwlg, Harry 50.. .Norwood I'ark, 111 Salesman Sarah Julleo, 



414 LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 

KaiDf. Age. Residence. Oecupalion. Identified by. 

Ludwig, Llna 14. ..Norwood Park, Hi Student Harry Heller. 

Liidwig, Sadie '10...Norwood Park, 111 Housewife Louis Wllzlnskl 

Luliger, Kleanor- 65... 756 Trumbull Ave., City Housekeeper.Geo. Lutlger. 

Mackay Rolands 6.. .5029 Indiana Ave., City Geo. Mackay. 

Aiahler, KdithJL 8...2141Jackson BouL, City Student Robert Mahler. 

Maloncy, Mrs. Jas. D.... 87...6050 Washington Boul., City.Housewife J. D. Maloney. 

Mann, Miss Emma D... —...1388 Washington Boul., City.Teacher Louis T. Mann. 

JNlartin, Earl 7.. .Oak Park, 111 Student F. B. Martin. 

„ , f Daniel Martin 

Martin, Harold C 14. ..11 Market Circle,Pulm'n,Ill.Student I Calton Hewitt. 

Martin, Robert B 12....Pullman, 111 Student Dan'l R. Martin 

McCaughan, Helen 17....6560 Yale Ave., City Studeut Trumbull White, 

McChristie, Mi.ss Anna..27....6;;i5 Lexington Ave., City H. H.Steere,M.D. 

McClellan, Joseph 80....Harvard, 111 Real Estate. ..J. B. Lyon, M. D, 

McClure, Lawrence R 13...5S20 Superior St., Austin Student Geo. V. McClure, 

McGill, Elizabeth H 12....Pittsburg, Pa Student M. R. K. McGill. 

McGunigle, Mamie 3;5....614 Sawyer Ave,, City Housekeeper.Belle L.Campbell 

McKee, J. W 64...Eola, 111 Farmer R. H. Ostrander. 

McKenna, Bernard B.... 3....758 S. Kedzie Ave., City J. L. McKenna. 

McKenua. Amy J 27....758 S. Kidzie Ave., City Housewife J. L. McKenna. 

McLaughlin, Wm. L 18....Delaware, Ohio Student J. L. Gunsaulus. 

McMillan, Mabel 23....2S24 N. Hermitage Ave Housewife Frank McMillan, 

Martin, Robert U 12....Pullman, 111 Student C. C. Hewitt. 

Marx, May 19....69 Humboldt Boul., City Aug. Marx. 

Matchate, Emla 49....636 W. 60th St., City Housekeeper.Jno. J. Aklns. 

Mead, Mrs. Chas 64....278 Belden Ave., City Clarence Mead. 

Mead, Luclle 10....Berwyn, 111 Student Clayton B. Mead. 

Meagher, Maria 30....656 Orchard St., City Teacher Jno. J. Holland. 

Mendel, Augusta M 53....5555 Washington Ave., City Housewife Max L. Mendel. 

Menzer, Mrs. Annie 46....202 24th Place, City Housewife 1 Frieda E'^Panl 

Meriam, Fanny G 60....498 Fullerton Ave., City W. C. Zlegler, 

Meyer, Elsa H 10....Grossdale, 111 Student Jacob B. Meyer. 

Middleton, Kathleen 12....St. Louis, Mo Student Frank C. Rellly. 

Miller, Helen 23....369 W. Huron St., City Housewife Aug. Miller. 

Miller, Willard 9....49J9 Vincennes Ave., Clty...Stndent B. J. Crandall. 

Mills, Isabella 21....6263 Jefl'erson Ave., City Student Ward M. Mills. 

Mills, Clara B 84....623 Sedgwick St., City Housewife Wm. A. Mills. 

Mills, Pearl M .S2....5613 Kimbark Ave., City Housewife Ward Mills. 

/ Jas. McGovern. 
Mitchell, Dora^ 30....Lookport, 111 Teacher } W. Fiddyment. 

'^A. Fiddyment. 



Moak, Anna 25....Watertown, Wis Stenographs ] ^ Templeton. 

' I H. Pease. 

Moak, Lena 31....Watertown, Wis Teacher C. D. Richards. 

Moloney, Alicia M 11. ..807 Benton St., Ottawa, Ill...Student J. F. Moloney. 

Moore, Benjamin .74. ..119 W. 59th St., City Machinist Goo. Mackay. 

Moore, Mrs. Kitty 50....119 W. 59th St., City Confection'y .Geo. Mackay. 

Moore, Mate 35.. .Hart, Mich Housewife Geo. Mackay. 

Moore, Matilda C. H 58...125 S. Kedzie Ave., City Widow W. S. Chapin. 

Moore, Sybil 14... Hart, Mich Student Geo. Mackay. 

Mossier, Pauline 13... Rensselaer, Ind Student Moses Leopold. 

Mueller, Ella 23. ..5395th Ave., Milwaukee, Fur Factory...Kaie Doellingea 

Mueller, Mrs. Emelia 60....Milwaukee, Wis, Seamstress ] ./^' „' /^.r* 

I Mrs. Hi. Grotli* 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 415 

Name. Aye. Residence. Occupation. Identified by. 

Mulr, Mrs. Eugenia 8.S....301 Winthrop Ave., City Housewife W.S.Moore. 

Muir, Jr., S. A :m...;S01 Winthrop Ave., City Tr. Salesman.. W. S. Moore. 

Mulhoilaud, Josephlne..J«... Cedar Rapids, Iowa Teacher Clark Griffith. 

Murphy, DewittJame8..13...13J0 Sheffield Ave., City Student J. D. Murphy. 

Murray, Charles (J3...Martlnsburg, Ohio Farmer J. F. Dodd. 

Mulr, Margery Estelle...!{0...801 Winthrop Ave., City Stenograph'r.C. H.Clark. 

Neumann, Mary 26. .. 1443 S. 42d Ave., City Housekeeper.Jos. F. Halik. 

Neumann, Anna P ;54... West Grossdale, 111 Housewife A. .1. Neumann. 

Newby, Anna Belle 28...3958 Drexel Boul., City Housewife L. (i. Newtay. 

Norrls, Llbbie A 50...5124 Dearborn St., City Housewife H. T. Norris. 

Norrls, Mabel A 17. ..5124 Dearborn St„ City H. T. Norris. 

Norton, Kdlth 12...0ntonagan, Mich Student J. H. Burke, Jr. 

Norton, Mattie 18...0ntonagau, Mich Student Slst'r M Boniface. 

Nelms, Blanche May 28...5145 Prairie Ave., City Housewife P. E. Cornell. 

Oakey, Luclle 13. ..515 W. 65th St., City Student D. L. Phillips. 

Oakey, Marianne 11. ..515 W. t)5th St., City .Student D. L. Phillip.s. 

Oakey, Alfred J 40.. .515 W. Cjth St., City Dentist D. L. Phillips. 

O'Donnell, Louise M 41. ..4629 Woodlawn Ave., City....Housewife J.J. O'Donnell. 

Olsen, Floy Irene S2...8;« Walnut St., City Housewife Oscar M. Olsen. 

Olson, Augusta 29...218 79th PI., City Nurse Alfred Olson. 

Olson, Elvira 18.. .7010 Stewart Ave., City None E. W. Olson. 

Owen, Dr. Chas. S 45... Wheaton, 111 Physician Geo. E. Haley. 

Owen, Mary 46.. .Wheaton, 111 Housewife N. E. Matter. 

Owen, William 8... Wheaton, 111 Student N. E. Matter. 

Owens, Amy .'!;i...6241 Kimbark Ave., City Teacher Roy Owens. 

Owens, Frances E 60...6241 Kimbark Ave., City Housewife Roy Owens. 

Oxnam, Florence 17...4.35 Englewood Ave., City Student Arthur J. Lee. 

Page, Bertha 45.. .6562 Stewart Ave., City Housewife E.D.Alexander. 

Page, Harold 12.. .6562 Stewart Ave., City Student E.D.Alexander. 

Palmer, Howard M 9. ..1141 Judson Av., Evanston...Student Wm. L. Maize. 

Palmer, Mrs. Katie 38... 1141 Judson Av., Evanston... Housewife F. P. Maize. 

Palmer, Richard G 14.. .1141 Judson Av., Evanston. ..Student F. P. Maize. 

Palmer, William 42. ..1141 Judson Av., Evanston. ..Salesman F. P. Maize. 

Parrlsh, Rosamond 19...47I7 Kimbark Ave., City Student Chas. P. Parrish, 

Patterson, Crawford J. ..12... 4467 Oakenwald Ave., City. ..Student J. C. Patter.son. 

Patterson, W. Addison. .10.. .4467 Oakenwald Ave., Clty...Student J. C. Patterson. 

Paulman, William 22...3738 State St., City Pat'n Maker..F. Paulman, Jr. 

Payne, Mrs. K. F 35....357 Garfield Boul., City Housewlie Jas. H. Payne. 

Payson, R. Gertrude 15.. .Oak Park, 111 Student Edward Payson. 

Pease, Mrs. A. W. L 53....Detrolt, Mich Widow PerclvalS. Pease. 

Pease, Elizabeth B 6....552 E. 49th St., City Student Perclval S. Pease. 

I'ease, Grace E 31...552 E. 49th St., City Housewife PerclvalS. Pease. 

Peck, Ethel M 16....2642 N. Hermitage Av.,Clty ..Student - i^" f,^t^'^' t^'" ^• 

' OF.- ^ E. (}. Curtis. 

Peck, Willis 13....2642N. Hermitage Av.,Clty ..Student D. A.Steele, M.D. 

Pelton,Mrs. Lilian .SO...Des Moines, Iowa W. F. Wilson. 

Persinger, Harriet 40.. .40 Florence Ave., City Housewife H. R. Perslnger. 

Perslnger, Hewitt 10.. ..50 Florence Ave., City Student J. W. Harrison. 

Peterson, Miss T. C 32. ..Fargo, Minn Principal J. D. Maloney. 

Pierce, Gretchen 10...Plalnwell, Mich Student L. 11. Pierce, M.D. 

I'lerce, Mrs. L. H. D 42....Plalnwell, Mich Housewife L. H. Pierce, M.D. 

IMIat, .losephlne 13....34 Humboldt Boul.. City Student ignac Pllat. 

I'luuey, Mrs. Belle 27...-S58 S. Leavltt St. City Housewife Harry B. Plnney. 



41G LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 

Navie. Age. Residence. Occupation. Identified 6y. 

Polzln, Etta n....Knox, Ind Albert Polzln. 

I'ond, Mrs. Eva 45....;?72 Lyman A v,R'v'ns'd,Ill. Housewife R. W. Rowen. 

Pond, Helen 7....1272 Lyman Av, R'v'ns'd.Ill.Student R. W. Rowen. 

Pond, Raymond 14....1272 Lyman Av, R'v'ns'd,Ill.Student Robt. W. Rowen 

PottUtzer, Jack ll....LaFayetle, ind Student Ell B. F'elsenthaL 

Power, Lilly 17....442 \V. 70tb St., CUy C. F. Atkinson. 

I'lidmore, Edith 8 32....58tli St. & Kimball Av, City. None J. E. Prldraore. 

Q,uetsch, Jeannette M 84....2596 N. Ashland Ave., C^ty...Housewlfe Wm. J. Guetsch. 

Radcllffe. Annie 43....4604 Calumet Ave., City Teacher Jas. H. RadcUffei 

Rankin, i^oulse ll....Zanesvllle, Ohio Student J. Pinkerton, Jr. 

Rankin, Martha A 36. ..So. Zanesvllle, Ohio Housewife J. Pinkerton, Jr. 

Rattey, William A 24...917N. Artesian Ave., City. ..Machinist .. ..Chas. J. Rattey, 

Reed, Nellie 24...66 Rush St., City Actress Herman Schultz. 

Reed, Wm. M 68...Waukegan, 111 Assessor Geo. Larsen 

Regensburg, Adele 17...Vendome Hotel, City None J.H. Regensburg. 

Regensburg, Hazel 14...Vendome Hotel, City Student J.H. Regensburg. 

Reid, Clara E 59...Waukegan, 111 Housewife T. E. Loveday. 

Reidy, Anna 27. ..614 S. Sawyer Ave., City Teacher Jno. J. Reldy. 

Reldy, Elonora 20...614 S. Sawyer Ave., City Helper Geo. W. Lyon. 

Reldy, Mary .■J2...614 S. Sawyer Ave., City Housework ...Jno. J. Reidy. 

Relnhold, Leroy 4. ..939 Northwestern Ave Chas. Relnhold. 

Reiss, Erna 10. ..4244 Vincennes Ave., City. ...Student Sam.Splelberger. 

Reiss, Ernest 11. ..4244 Vincennes Ave., City. ...Student Albert Eager. 

Reiss, Mrs. Marion 35. ..4244 Vincennes Ave., City. ...Housewife Otto Fautl. 

Relter, Mrs. Irene 60. ...3000 Michigan Ave., City None I. J. Keating. 

Reynolds, Barbara L 28...1286 E. Ravenswood Park 

Ravenswood, 111 Housewife W. L). Reynolds. 

Reynolds, Dora Lucllle.l4...421 E. 45th St., City Student J.J. Reynolds. 

Reynolds, Emma J 7...1286 E. Ravenswood Ave., 

Ravenswood, 111 Student W.D.Reynolds. 

Richardson, Henry L....49...5737 Drexel Ave., City Student A.H.Rlehardson. 

Rimes, Bertha L 38. ..6331 Wentworth Ave., City..Housewife WF. Rimes. 

Rimes, Lloyd 5. ..6:^31 Wentworth Ave., City..None C. H. Rimes 

Rimes, Dr. Mervin 38. ..6331 Wentworth Ave., City..Dentist W. S. Puiien. 

Rimes, Myron L 10...633I Wentworth Ave., City..Student W. S. Pullen. 

Rimes, T. Martin 7. ..6331 Wentworth Ave., City ..Student W. S. Pullen. 

Rife, Jennie E 31. ..516 E. 46th St., City Housewife W. Rife. 

Robblns Ruth M 17. ..924 Jenifer St., Madison, Wls.Student C. H. Robblns 

Roberts, Charles L 38....279 Drake Ave., City Clergyman ... 

Roberts, Theodore 44.... Woodford, Ohio Farner C. B. Mead. 

Robinson, Minnie 15....Edgewaler, 111 Attendant W. C. Robinson. 

Rothe, Lillian 10....7218 La Fayette Ave., City.. ..Student Edmund Duse. 

Rogers, Rose K 32....1342 N. Sawyer Ave., City. ...Housewife S. B. Rogers. 

Rubly, Mrs. Louisa 65....888 Wilson Ave., City Housewife G. H. Rubly. 

Ruhleman, Clara 63....Detrolt, Mich Housekeeper. Arthur Anger. 

Savllle, Warner 12....48 E. 53d St., City Student R. C. Campbell. 

Sands, Mrs. Amelia T....50....Toiono, 111 Housewife R. E. Sands. 

Sands, Jessie 12....Tolono, lU Student J. P. Danson. 

Sayre, Miss Carrie A 30....7646 Bond Ave., City Teacher J. M. Murphy. 

SchaflTner, Minnie H 34....578 E. 45th Place, City Teacher M.J. SchaflTner. 

Soott, Burr 22....Blnghanipton, N. Y Actor G. B. Williams. 

Skarupa, Nellie 26....Longwood, Bronx, N. Y Seamstress ...Henry Eds. 

Schmidt, Rosamond 18....835 W. 61st St., City Student H. Q, Schmidt. 



LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 417 

Namr. Aye. Residence. Occnpntion. Identified by. 

Hchneider, Jainee .S0....157 Roscoe Boul., City Teacher L. Bchaefer. 

Schneider, Dora J '22.. ..lo" Koseoe (St., City Housewife L.. Hchaefer. 

fecboubeck, Auua ;55....402 K. Division St., City Housewife ....Carl Schonbeck. 

Schonbec-k, Klvlra 8....-102 K. Division St., City Carl ScUonbecfc. 

Schneider, (t. (irelner.... 21... .4;i7 Beldeu .\ve.,Clty student 1j. A. Beaton. 

Schreiner, Arline F 6.. .218.'! W. Monroe St., City Student Iu o ■'^*^!^''^°"" 

' ' • ( H.B. Schreiner 

Schreiner, Minnie L 30...218!? W. Monroe St., City None H. B. .Schreiner. 

Schreiner, Irma May... 5. .. 21S;j W. Monroe St., City H.B. Schreiner, 

Secrlst, Hattle 40.. .2889PaulinaSt.,Uavens'd, III. Housewife C. D. Hussey. 

Secrlst, June 8...28S9PaulinaSt.,Ravens'd,Ill.Student C. D. Hu.ssey. 

Seymour, Joseph 22. ..758 W. Lake St., City Usher Gord. Seymour. 

Shabad, Myrtle 14. ..4441 Indiana Ave., City Student H. M. Shabad. 

Shabad, Theodore 123.^...4041 Indiana Ave., City Scliool boy Hy. M. Shabad. 

Sheridan, Andrew- J 4.3...4LJ5 Wentworth Ave., Clty...Loco.Engln'r.Frank Glock. 

Shiners, Alice 25. ..4344 Oakenwald Ave., City. ..Domestic Thos. Grace. 

Sill, Lucie A 2.5...t>504 Union Ave., City Teacher A. S. Hall. 

Simpson, Ada —...Brush, Colo Housewife Jas. G. .Skinner. 

Smith, Ruth M 15. ..2177 Washington Boul., Clty.Student Chas. E. Smith. 

Smith, Mrs. F. E .S5...Desplalnes, 111 Housewife F. E. Smith. 

Smith, Maurine W 13...Desplaines, 111 Student F. E. Smith. 

Specht, Eva 12...6.542 Stewart Ave., City .student Clara L. Kinney. 

Specht, Jane !i5...a542 Stewart Ave., City Housewife Clara L. Kinney. 

Spencer, Josephine 16. ..7110 Princeton Ave., City Student Geo. G. Spencer. 

Spring, Ellen E 6.5...420 P'oster Ave., City Housewife S. N. Spring. 

Spring, Edwina C *)...420 Foster Ave., (ity ,s. N.. Spring. 

Spring, Florence Inez 27. ..657 Pine Grove Ave., City.... Housewife Kobt. T. Gllmore, 

Spring, Sr., W. N 76. ..420 Foster Ave., City Retired B. M..S. N. Spring. 

Spindler, Ktta B SS... Lowell, Ind Housewife J. H. Splndler, 

Splndler, H. Burdette 9. ..Lowell, Ind Student I. U. Splndler. 

Stafford, Bessie M .S0...12M W ilcox Ave., City Housewife F. H. Stafford. 

Stark, M. N. M 38...Des Moines, Iowa Housewife W. H. Utt. 

Stark Minnie G :>7...1)e8 Moines, Iowa Housewife Lynn J. Tuttle. 

Stelnmetz.Emma 59. ..2541 S, Halsted St., City Housewife O.T.P. Stein metz 

Stern, Martin SO-.-WSS Congress St., City Clerk Adam Stern. 

Stillman, Cora 22...Palo Alto, Cal E. H. Mulligan. 

Stoddard, Donald ll...Minonk, 111 Student F. J. Simater. 

Stoddard, Zedell 80...Mlnonk, 111 F. J. Simater. 

Stratman, Ruth 15...Dodgevllle, Ind Student \Vm. Uttlng. 

Strong, Elizabeth 56. ..10 Oakland Crescent, City. ..Widow H. A. Badger. 

Strong, Florence May 24. ..10 Oakland Crescent, Cltj... Housewife H. A. Badger. 

Strawbridge, Mary A 51. ..849 Jackson Boul., City Widow (t. M. Hammond. 

Studley, Geo. W 35...3029 Parnell Ave., City Minister W. M. Morrison. 

Sullivan, Ella 24...Knoxville, Iowa Teacher s. M. Perrlgo. 

Squire, Olive E 14...942Cuyler Ave., City Student Oscar W. Squire. 

Sutton, Harry B 17... 1.595 W. Adams St., City Student P. A. Mallen. 

Swarts, Marie Bertha ll...Cu8ter Park, 111 Student Mrs.A. A. Taylor. 

Bwayze, Elolse 16...St. Mary's, Ind Student {gIo! W^Rogeni 

Sylvester, Electa A 3:i...City Bookkeeper ..E. L. Sylvester. 

Taylor, Emma R ."11...1222 Morse Ave., Rogers Pk.Housewlfe,....H. M.Taylor. 

Taylor, Flora 16...Evan8ton, 111 Student Wm. J. Taylor. 

Taylor, James M 60. ..1222 .Morse Ave., Rogers I'k.Real F:8tate....\.lbert A. Taylor. 

Taylor. Rene Mary 12. ..1222 Morse Ave., Rogers Pk.Htudeut H. M. Taylor. 

Tbacber, Walter Sii..Ml W. SOtbPl., City Salesman FraucU Thacber. 

N.Y. 27 



418 LIST OF VICTIMS OF THE CHICAGO HORROR. 

Name. Age. Residsnce. Occupation. Identified by. 

Thomas, Kemington H.. 8...62 Woodland Park Student F. H. Thomas. 

I'bompson, Clarence J. ..'22. ..Kansas City, Mo Tr. Salesman. Vern. Thompson 

1 hoinpson.Clyde 21...Maclison, S. Dak Student J. P. Hoyland 

1 hompson,' Robert S 70...'18471<"oriestville Ave., City Vein. Thompson 

TLoln, Clara 17.. .Lake Geneva, 111 Nurse Maud Parcells. 

Tobias, Florence 34...Cily Teacher Dr. G. J. Tobias. 

Toruey, MarieE 27... 1292 W.Adams St., City Teacher Austin E.Torney. 

Trask, Mrs. H. Bates.... 50...228 Clay St., Ottawa, 111 Housewife Julia E. Trask. 

'Jrask', Odessa C 14...228 Clay St., Ottaway.lll Student R. H. Traak 

Turney, Miss Carrie... . 85...534 E. 50th St., City Milliner CM. Bennett. 

Turney, Mrs. Sasan 55...534 E. 50th St., City Widow C. M. Bennett. 

Tuttle, Edith, 81...Des Moines, Iowa Housewife Lynn J. Tuttle. 

"Puttie, Grace 40...18 Wisconsin St,, City Housewife Robt. W. Rowen. 

Vallely, Berenice 11...858 S. Sawyer Ave,, City Student Jno. L. Vallely. 

Vallely] Edith B 85...&58 S. Sawyer Ave., City Housewife Jno. L. Vallely. 

Van Ingen, Edward 20. ..Kenosha, Wis Clerk Thos. Hansen. 

Van Ingen, Elizabeth.... 9...858rarkAv., Kenosha, Wis. Student Lulu Trenary. 

Van Ingen, Grace 22. ..Kenosha, Wis L. E.Kalteubach. 

Van Ingen, John 18... Kenosha, Wis Student Thos. Hansen. 

Van Ingen, Margareth. 14... Kenosha, Wis Student L. E.Kaltenbach. 

Waehs, Ella 41. ..La Porte, Ind Saleslady F. C. Flentye. 

Wagner, Maryanne 48. ..629 Sedgwick St., City Housewife. ...Chas. S. Wagner. 

Waldman, Sam 44...608 Milwaukee Ave., City....Dep. Ct. Clk... |g_ j; wiuiams. 

Washington, Frieda 28. ..1847 Melrose St., City Housekeeper Percy L. Barter. 

Washington, John 10. ..1847 Melrose St., City Student Percy L. Barter. 

Weber, Mrs. Carrie 40...4C2 Garfield Ave., City Housewife ....Jno. J. Weber. 

Weck,'Errick 28. ..504 Garfield Av., Milwaukee Furrier Kate Doellingen. 

Weiners, Ida 42. ..1970 Kimball Ave., City Housewife ....Geo. H. Rubly. 

Weinfeld, Hannah 20.. .8745 Wabash Ave., City Jos. Weinleld. 

Weiskopf, Irma 15. ..4939 Champlain Ave., City. ..Student D. W. Weiskopf. 

Wells, Donald 12.. .1888 Diversey Boul., City Student S. P. Wells, Jr. 

Welto'n, Susie Alice 82...6241 Kimbark Ave., City Teacher F. D. CampbelL 

Wermich, Mary 29. ..341 Center St., City Servant Anna Appel. 

Wetmore, Francis E 31... 10619 Drew, Wash. Heights, Librarian M. T. Wetmore. 

White, Florence 25...487 E. 8Sth St., City Teacher Jno. F. Meehan. 

White, Harriet A 27...107th and Drew Sts., Wash- 
ington Heights, 111 Housewife ....Carlos F. White- 

Wilcox, Eva M 47. ..109 S, Leavitt St., City Housewife ....Cha§. H. Wilcox. 

Witkofsky, Yetta 32...386 W. 12th St., City Housewife ....Morris Witkofsky 

Williams, Howard J 18...213 S. Leavitt St., City Student Geo. P. Blair. 

Winder, Barry 12. ..201 S. Harvey, Oak Park, 111. Student Thos. Winder. 

Winder' Paul 17...201S. Harvey, Oak Park, 111. Student Thos. Winder. 

Wlnslow, Chas. E 48. ..Thief River Falls, Minn Asst. Mngi-. ...Edward Browne. 

Wolf, Sadie 26.. .Hammond, Ind Leo Wolf. 

Wolff, Harriot 10.. .1819 Washington Boul., City Student F. H. Wolff. 

Woods, Mrs. I. L 49. ..537 65th St., City Housewife ....S. S. Finley. 

Wunderlich, Helen M. ...10...834 Wilson Ave., City Student H. Wunderlich. 

Wunderllch, L. Perle 36. ..8;W Wilson Ave., City Housewife ....Dr. E. N. Elliott. 

Woltmann, Otto 29...a81 E. 43d St., City Baker Adolf Woltmann. 

Wlgfall, Emllie C 57. ..4467 Oakenwald Ave., City ...Milliner F. T. Selsmer. 

/eisler, Walter B 17...8256 Lake Park Ave., City ...Student Jos. Hyman. 

JUmmermau, Elizabeth 23...946 St. Louis Ave., City Teacher Jno. F. Craddock 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
OTHER APPALLING TRAGEDIES CAUSED 
BY FIRE. 

CHICAGO is not alone in her great agony. Hers is 
one of the most awful holocausts of which we have 
any record, but other communities have been smitten by 
consuming fire. The pages of history have often been 
lighted by the lurid glare of flames. Since the time that 
civilized man first met with fellow man to enjoy the work 
of the primitive playwright, humanity has paid a toll of 
human life for its amusements. 

Oftener than history tells, the tiny flicker of a tongue 
of flame has thrown a gay, laughing audience into a wild, 
struggling mob, and instead of the curtain which would 
have been rung down on the comedy on the stage, a pall 
of black smoke covered the struggles of the living and 

Of all the theatre disasters of history, none ever 
occurred in America equaling the loss of life in the 
Iroquois fire. But the grand total of persons killed in 
theatre holocausts is large and the saddest comment on 
this list is that most of the victims were from holiday 
audiencfco of women and children. 

To all have been the same accompaniments of panic, 
futile struggle and suffocation. In the last century with 
the introduction of the modern style of playhouse, these 
fatal fires have increased. The annals of the stage are 
replete with dark pages that cause the tragedy of the 
mimic drama depicted behind the footlights to pale and 
shrivel into comparative nothingness. 

Perhaps it is a fatal legacy from the time when 
civilized society gathered in its marbled coliseums and 

419 



i20 OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. ( 

amphitheaters to witness the mortal combats of human 
soldiers or the death struggles of Christians waging a 
vain battle against famished wild beasts. Whatever it 
may be, death has always stalked as the dread companion 
of the god of the muse and drama. 

An English statistician published in 1898 a list of 
fires at places of public entertainment in all countries in 
the preceding century. He showed that there had been 
1,100 conflagrations, with 10,000 fatalities, and he apolo- 
gized for the incompleteness of his figures. Another 
authority says that in the twelve years from 1876 to 1888 
not less than 1,700 were killed in theatre disasters in 
Brooklyn, Nice, Vienna, Paris, Exeter and Oporto, and 
that in every case nearly all the victims were dead within 
ten minutes from the time the smoke and flame from the 
stage reached the auditorium. As in the Iroquois fire, it 
was mainly in the balconies and galleries that death held 
its revels. 

EARLY THEATRICAL CONFLAGRATIONS. 

Fire wrought havoc at Rome in the Amphitheater in 
the year 14 b. c, and the Circus Maximus was similarly 
destroyed three times in the first century of the Christian 
era. Three other theatres were razed by flames in the 
same period, and Pompeii's was burned again almost two 
centuries later, but the exact loss of life is not recorded 
in either instance. The Greek playhouses, built of stone 
in open spaces, were never endangered by fire. 

No theatres were built on the modem plan until in 
the sixteenth century in France, and not until in the 
seventeenth did any catastrophe worthy of record occur. 
When Shakespeare lived plays were generally produced 
in temporary structures, sometimes merely raised plat- 



OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 421 

forms in open squares, and it was after his time that 
scenic effects began to be amplified and the use of illumi- 
nants increased. Thus it was that dangers, both to 
players and auditors, were vastly increased. 

In the Teatro Atarazanas, in Seville, Spain, many 
people were killed and injured at a fire in 1615. The first 
conflagration of this kind in England worth noting hap- 
pened in 1672, when the Theatre Royal, or Drury Lane, 
standing on the site of the playhouse in which " Mr. Blue- 
beard " was produced before it was brought to Chicago, 
was burned to the ground. Sixty other buildings were 
destroyed, but no loss of life is recorded. 

BURNING OF THE PALAIS ROYAL, PARIS. 

Two hundred and ten people lost their lives and the 
whole Castle of Amalienborg, in Copenhagen, was laid in 
ashes in 1689, from a rocket that ignited the scenery in 
the opera house. Eighteen persons perished at the theatre 
in the Kaizersgracht, Amsterdam, in 1772, and six years 
later the Teatro Colisseo, at Saragossa, Spain, went up in 
flames and seventy-seven lives were lost. The governor 
of the province was among the victims. Twenty players 
were suffocated in the burning of the Palais Royal, in 

Paris, in 1781. 

In the nineteenth century there were twelve theatre 
fires marked by great loss of life, and the first of these 
occurred in the United States. At Richmond, on the day 
after Christmas in 181 1, a benefit performance of " Agnes 
and Raymond, or the Bleeding Nun," was being given, 
and the theatre was filled with a wealthy and fashionable 
audience. The governor of Virginia, George W. Smith, 
ex-United States Senator Venable, and other prominent 
persons were in the audience atid were numbered among 



422 OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 

tHe seventy victims. The last act was on wlien the care- 
less hoisting of a stage chandelier with lighted candles 
set fire to the scenery. Most of those killed met death in 
the jam at the doors. 

The Lehman Theatre and circus in St. Petersburg 
was the scene of a fire in 1836, in which hundreds of peo- 
ple perished. A stage lamp hung high ignited the roof, a 
panic ensued, and there was such a mad rush that most 
of the people slew each other trying to get out. Those not 
trampled to death were incinerated by the fire that rapidly 
enveloped the temporary wooden building. 

STAMPEDE IN ROYAL THEATRE, QUEBEC. 

A lighted lamp, upset in a wing, caused a stampede in 
the Royal Theatre, Quebec, June 12th, 1846, and one 
hundred people were either burned or crushed into lifeless- 
ness. The exits were poor and the playhouse was built 
of combustible material. Less than a year later the 
Grand Ducal Theatre at Carlsruhe, Baden, Germany, was 
destroyed by a fire, due to the careless lighting of the 
gas in the grand ducal box. Most of the one hundred and 
fifty victims were suffocated. Between fifty and one hun- 
dred people met a fiery death in the Teatro degli Aqui- 
dotti at Leghorn, Italy, June 7th, 1857. Fireworks were 
being used on the stage and a rocket set fire to the 
scenery. 

One of the most serious fires, from the standpoint of 
loss of life, was that in the Jesuit Church at Santiago, 
South America, in 1863. Fire broke out in the building 
during service. A panic started and the efforts of the 
■nriests to calm the immense crowd and lead them quietly 
from the edifice were vain. The few doors became jam- 
med with a struggling mass of men, women and children. 



OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 423 

The next day two thousand bodies were taken from the 
church, most of them suffocated or trampled to death. 

The Brooklyn Theatre fire was long memorable in 
this country. Songs, funeral marches and poems without 
number were written commemorating the sad event. Vastly 
different from the Iroquois horror, most of the victims of 
the Brooklyn Theatre were burned beyond recognition. 
At Greenwood cemetery, in Brooklyn, there now stands a 
marble shaft to the unidentified victims of the holocaust. 

BROOKLYN THEATRE FIRE. 

Kate Claxton was playing "The Two Orphans" at 
Conway's Theatre, in Brooklyn, on the night of December 
5, 1876. In the last scene of the last act Miss Claxton 
as Louise, the poor blind girl, had just lain down on hei 
pallet of straw, when she saw above her in the flies a tiny 
flame. An actor named Murdoch, on the stage with her, 
saw it about the same time, and was so excited that he 
began to stammer his lines. Miss Claxton tried to reassure 
him and partly succeeded. 

Then the audience realized that the theatre was on 
fire, and a movement began. The star, with Mr. Murdoch 
and Mrs. Farren, joined hands, walked to the footlights 
and begged the audience to go out in an orderly manner. 
" You see, we are between you and the fire," said Miss 
Claxton. The people were proceeding quietly, when a 
man's voice shouted, " It is time to be out of this," and 
every one seemed seized with a frenzy. The main entrance 
doors opened inwardly, and there was such a jam that 
these could not be manipulated. 

The crowds from the galleries rushed down the stair- 
ways and fell or jumped headlong into the struggling mass 
below. Of the 1000 people in the theatre 297 perished. 



424 OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 

They were either burned, suffocated or trampled to death. 
The actor Murdoch was one of the victims. 

The same year, 1876, a panic resulted in the Chinese 
theatre of San Francisco from a cry of fire. A lighted 
cigar, which someone had playfully dropped into a specta- 
tor's coat pocket, caused a smell of burning wool. The 
audience became panic stricken and rushed madly for 
the exits. At the time there were about nine hundred 
Americans in the auditorium, and of this number one- 
quarter were seriously injured. The fire itself was of no 
consequence. 

RING THEATRE, VIENNA, BURNED. 

The destruction of the Ring theatre at Vienna, 
December 8, 1881, remains the greatest horror of the 
kind in the history of civilization. It was preceded on 
March 23 of the same year, by the burning of the Muni- 
cipal theatre in Nice, caused by an explosion of gas, and 
in which between 150 and 200 people perished miserably, 
but the magnitude of the Vienna holocaust made the 
world forget Nice for the time. The feast of the Immacnr^ 
late Conception was being celebrated by the Viennese 
and Offenbach's " Les Contes d'Hoffman," an opera bouffe, 
was the play. The audience numbered 2,500. 

Fire was suddenly observed in the scenery, and wild 
panic started. An iron curtain, designed for just such 
emergencies, was forgotten, and the flames, which might 
thus have been confined to the stage, spread furiously 
through the entire building. The scene was changed 
from light-hearted revelry, with gladsome music, to one of 
lurid horror. 

The exits from the galleries were long and tortuous 
and quickly became choked. As in the Iroquois theatre 



OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 42.3 

6re, those who had occupied the gallery seats were the 
one's who lost their lives. But few escaped from the 
galleries. The great majority of the spectators were 
burned beyond recognition by their nearest relatives. 
One hundred and fifty were so charred that they were 
buried in a common grave, and the city's mourning was 
shared by all the world. 

The next fire of this nature to attract the world's atten- 
tion and sympathy was the destruction of the Circus Ferron, 
at Berditscheff, Russian Poland. Four hundred and thirty 
people were killed, and eighty mortally injured. Many 
children were crushed and sufi-ocated in the jam, and 
horses and other trained animals perished by the score. 
This was on January 13, 1883, and the origm of the con- 
flagration was traced to a stableman who smoked a cigarette 
while lying in a heap of straw. 

TWO GREAT HORRORS CAUSED BY FIRE. 
The burning of the Opera Comique in Paris, May 25, 
1887 was a spectacular horror. Here again an iron cur- 
tain that would have protected the audience was not low- 
ered The first act of " Mignon " was on, when the scen- 
ery was observed to be ablaze. The upper galleries were 
transformed into infernos, in which men knocked other 
men and women down and trampled them in their eager- 
ness to save themselves, while the flames reached out and 

enveloped them all. -, 1 • 

Many of the actors and actresses escaped only m 
their costumes, and some rushed nude into the streets. 
The scenes in the thoroughfares where men and women 
in tights and ball dresses and men in gorgeous theatrical 
robes mingled with the naked, and the dead and dymg 
were strewn about, made a picture fantastically terrible. 



426 OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE, 

The official list of dead was seventy-five, but many others 
died from the fire's effects. 

The theatre at Exeter, England, burned Sept. 5, 1887, 
was ignited from gas lights, and so mucb smoke filled the 
edifice in a sliort time tbat near 200 were suffocated in 
their seats. They were found sitting there afterward, 
just as thougb they were still watcbing tbe play. This 
was tbe eleventh, and the Oporto fire the twelftb of the 
big conflagrations of the centur}^ One bundred and sev- 
enty dead were taken from the ruins of tbe Portuguese 
playbouse after the flames which destroyed it on tbe even- 
ing of Marcb 31, 1888, bad been subdued. Many sailors 
and marine soldiers in tbe galleries used knives to kill 
persons standing in tbeir way, and scores of tbe victims 
were found witb tbeir tbroats cut. 

ANOTHER PARISIAN HORROR. 

Ten years after tbe Opera Comique fire occurred tbe 
greatest of all Parisian borrors, tbe destruction by flames 
of tbe cbarity bazar. May 4, 1897. Members of tbe no- 
bility, and even royalty, were among tbe victims. All of 
fasbionable Paris were under the roof of a temporary 
wooden edifice known to visitors to tbe exposition of 1889 
as "Old Paris." Tbe annual bazar in tbe interest of 
cbarity bad always been one of tbe most imposing of tbe 
spring functions. Tbe wealthy and distinguished, titled 
and modisb were tbere in larger numbers tban on any 
previous occasion. 

Tbe fire broke out witb a suddenness tbat so dazed 
everyone tbat tbe small cbance of escape from tbe flimsy 
structure was made even less. Duchesses, marquises, 
countesses, baronesses and grand dames joined in the mad 
rush for tbe exits. Tbe men present are said to bave 



OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 427 

acted in a particularly cowardly manner, knocking down 
and trampling upon women and children. The death list 
of more than loo included the Duchesses d'Alencon and 
De St. Didier, the Marquise de Maison, and three barons, 
three baronesses, one count, eleven countesses, one general, 
five sisters of charity and one mother superior. The 
Duchess d'Alencon was the favorite sister of the Empress 
of Austria and had been a fiance of the mad King Ludwig 
of Bavaria. The Duchess d'Uzes was badly burned. The 
shock of the news and the death of his niece, the Duchess 
d'Alencon, accounted for the death on May 7, of the Due 
d'Aumale. 

GREAT HOTEL FIRE IN NEW YORK. 
The Gaiety Theatre in Milwaukee, on November 5, 
1869, furnished more than thirty victims to the fire fiend 
but only two of these were burned to death. The Central 
Theatre, in Philadelphia, was destroyed April 28, 1892, 
and six persons perished. A panic occurred at the Front 
Street playhouse, in Baltimore, December 27, 1895, among 
an audience composed entirely of Polish Jews. There was 
no fire but a woman who had seen a bright light on the 
stage thought there was, and her cries caused a stampede 
that resulted in twenty-four deaths. 

Two deadly conflagrations occurred m New York m 
IQOO The first the Windsor hotel fire, which resulted 
in the death of eighty persons. Fire broke out in the old 
hotel on Fifth avenue about midnight. With hghtning 
rapidity the flames shot up the light and air shafts, filling 
the rooms with smoke and making them as light as day. 
The guests suddenly aroused from sleep became panic 
stricken The fire department was unable to throw up 
ladders and give aid as fast as frightened faces appeared 



428 OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 

at the windows. The result was that many jnmped to 
death. They were picked up dead and dying in the 
streets. Others ran from their rooms into the fire-swept 
hallways and were burned to death. 

A short time later fire broke out one afternoon on 
the docks across the river from New York at Hoboken. 
The fire was on a pier piled high with combustible 
material. It burned like powder, spreading to the ocean 
liners tied to the pier and the efforts of the fire depart- 
ment were not effective in checking it. The cables which 
held the blazing vessels to the piers burned through and 
they drifted into the river, carrying fire and death among 
the shipping. Longshoremen unloading and loading the 
vessels jumped in panic into the river. Others found 
themselves cut off from both land and water by the flames 
on all sides and were burned like rats in a trap. It was 
estimated that 300 lives were lost. Many bodies were 
never recovered and others were found miles down the 
river. 

PROPERTY AND FINANCIAL LOSSES. 

Property losses are seldom proportionate to the 
financial losses from fire. In the Iroquois theatre fire 
the property loss was almost inconsequential, while at 
the burning of Moscow by the Russians, Sept. 4, 1812, 
the property loss amounted to more than $150,000,000. 

Constantinople, with its squalid and crowded streets, 
has always been a fruitful spot for fires. They are of 
annual occurrence and as the Turkish fire department is 
a travesty, are usually of considerable magnitude. The 
great fire of that city was in 1729, when 12,000 houses 
were destroyed and 7,000 persons burned to death. Aug. 
12, 1782, a three days' fire started in which 10,000 



OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 'i'2'd 

houses, 50 corn mills and 100 mosques were burned and 
100 lives lost. In February of the same year, 600 houses 
were burned, and in June 7,000 more. Fires are the best 
safeguards for Constantinople's health. 

Great Britain has had comparatively few fires. In 
1598 one at Tiverton destroyed 400 houses and 33 lives. 
In 1854 50 persons were killed at Gateshead. The great 
fire of London raged from Sept. 2 to 6, 1666. It began 
in a wooden building in Pudding Lane and consumed the 
buildings on 436 acres, blotting out 400 streets, 13,200 
houses, St. Paul's and 86 other churches, 58 halls and all 
public buildings, three of the city gates and four stone 
bridges. The property loss was $53,652,500) while only 
six persons were killed. 

FIRES IN LARGE AMERICAN CITIES. 
Nearly every large city of the United States has had 
its great fire. That of Boston was on Nov. 9 and 10, 
1872. Fire started at Summer and Kingston streets and 
65 acres were burned over. The property loss was about 
^75^000,000 and there was no loss of life. 

' The great fire in New York began in Merchant street, 
Dec. 16, 1835. No lives were lost, but the property lost 
was' $15,000,000 and 52 acres were devastated, 530 build- 
ings being destroyed. Ten years later a much smaller 
fire in the same district caused the death of 35 persons.^ 

July 9, 1850, thirty lives were lost in Philadelphia, 
and February 8, 1865, twenty persons were killed by an-- 
other fire. Large fires in that city have almost invariably 
been accompanied by loss of life. 

As the result of a Fourth of July celebration m 1866, 
neariy half of Portland, Maine., was swept away by fire. 
The property loss was $10,000,000, but there was no loss 



430 OTHER TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 

of life. In September and October of 1871, forest fires 
raged in Wisconsin and Michigan. An immense territory- 
was swept over and more than 1,000 persons lost their 
lives. 

The greatest fire of modern times was the one which 
started in Chicago, October 8, 1871. A strip through the 
heart of the city, four miles long and a mile and a half 
wide, was burned over. The total lost was $196,000,000 
and 250 persons lost their lives. By the fire 17,450 build- 
ings were destroyed and 98,860 persons made homeless. 

Fires in Chicago attended with loss of life have been 
of increasing frequency in the past few years. Fire in 
the Henning & Speed building on Dearborn street, in 
1900, caused 4 girls to lose their lives. Since it and before 
the Iroquois disaster have come : The St. Luke Sanitarium 
horror, 10 lives lost, 43 injured; the Doremus laundry 
explosion, 8 lives lost ; the American Glucose Sugar 
Refinery blaze, 8 killed ; Northwestern boiler explosion, 
Skilled; Stock Yards boiler explosion, 18 killed, and 
about a year ago the Lincoln hotel fire, 14 visiting stock- 
men suffocated. 

In view of this terrible array of suffering and death, 
it would seem that no precaution could be too great 
to avert future calamities. But although human life is 
beyond price, it is probable that the world at large will 
move on very much in the same old way — an arousing 
and an upheaval of public sentiment for a time after the 
burned and maimed have been laid away, and then a 
gradual return of carelessness. It would seem impossible, 
however, that the United States could forget for many 
generations the Iroquois disaster, and that it must result 
in a final reform of all arrangements looking to the safety 
of theatre goers. 



OTHER APPALLING TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 431 

Ou February 7, 1904, Baltimore was visited by a 
catastropbe which is without a parallel in the history of 
that city. The heart of the business section was devas- 
tated by fire. Block after block of valuable buildiugs 
was swept away by a couflagration which raged with a 
fierceness and destructiveness that neither the skill nor 
the courage of the firemen could stay. Millions of 
property were lost and thousands of persons deprived of 
employment. It was a cruel blow to the material inter- 
ests of Baltimore, but not a crushing one ; for the busi- 
ness men of the city, with undaunted spirit, proved 
themselves equal to the occasion, stupendous as the dis- 
aster was, and long as its eSects will be felt. 

HELP HURRIED FROM OTHER PLACES. 

Starting Sunday morning in the centre of the busi- 
ness district, the fire ate its way from block to block with 
a swiftness that was almost inconceivable. The entire 
fire department was called into service and assistance was 
requested from other cities. Washington and Philadel- 
phia responded promptly. The detachment of fire fight- 
ers from the National Capital received an ovation when 
they reached Baltimore. 

The aid supplied by other cities to which appeals 
were sent — the offers of assistance which were tendered 
voluntarily by others — prove that in the hour of calamity 
Baltimore had the practical sympathy and friendship of 
many communities with which it has business and social 
connections. In connection with the appeal for aid to 
Washington, President Roosevelt expressed the desire 
that everything possible should be done by the Wash- 
ington authorities to help Baltimore. 

While the fire department made desperate efiforts to 



2 3 1904 



432 OTHER APPALLING TRAGEDIES CAUSED BY FIRE. 

check the progress of the fire, it was impossible to control 
the flames. The atmospheric conditions were unfavora- 
ble. A high wind blowing from the time the fire began 
and continuing throughout two days filled the air with 
myriads of cinders, which spread the conflagration to tin- 
expected quarters. Dynamite was used frequently, but 
without satisfactory results. It seemed almost from the 
first that the firemen were doomed to make a losing 
fight, despite their brave and vigorous efi'orts. In the 
face of such conditions they were utterly helpless. 

HEROISM DEFEATED. 

Those who watched the progress of the fire were 
sick at heart, not because the fire-fighters lacked zeal or 
courage, but because they felt that the skill and heroism 
of man were impotent to accomplish results against such 
overwhelming odds. Business men saw the accumula- 
tions of years swept away in an hour ; the angry flames 
shot up above the highest buildings, and hissed and 
roared ; fierce blasts of wind carried the fire into new 
localities ; great stocks of merchandise, of every sort and 
description, were consumed, as it were, in a moment; 
vast numbers of the inhabitants were reduced to poverty 
and the city was stunned by the frightful calamity. 

Fire engines and firemen were sent from places as 
far away as New York, who joined with others on the 
ground to check the overwhelming conflagration. The 
terrified citizens rendered all aid of which they were 
capable, but were compelled to see the big houses and 
business sections of the Monumental City reduced to 
ashes. 



